Polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity and polynucleotides encoding same

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity and isolated polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods of producing and using the polypeptides.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/223,533, filed Jul. 7, 2009, which application is incorporated herein by reference.

STATEMENT AS TO RIGHTS TO INVENTIONS MADE UNDER FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

This invention was made partly with Government support under Cooperative Agreement DE-FC36-08GO18080 awarded by the Department of Energy. The government has certain rights in this invention.

REFERENCE TO A SEQUENCE LISTING

This application contains a Sequence Listing in computer readable form, which is incorporated herein by reference.

REFERENCE TO A DEPOSIT OF BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL

This application contains a reference to a deposit of biological material, which deposit is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods of producing and using the polypeptides.

2. Description of the Related Art

Cellulose is a polymer of the simple sugar glucose linked by beta-1,4 bonds. Many microorganisms produce enzymes that hydrolyze beta-linked glucans. These enzymes include endoglucanases, cellobiohydrolases, and beta-glucosidases. Endoglucanases digest the cellulose polymer at random locations, opening it to attack by cellobiohydrolases. Cellobiohydrolases sequentially release molecules of cellobiose from the ends of the cellulose polymer. Cellobiose is a water-soluble beta-1,4-linked dimer of glucose. Beta-glucosidases hydrolyze cellobiose to glucose.

The conversion of lignocellulosic feedstocks into ethanol has the advantages of the ready availability of large amounts of feedstock, the desirability of avoiding burning or land filling the materials, and the cleanliness of the ethanol fuel. Wood, agricultural residues, herbaceous crops, and municipal solid wastes have been considered as feedstocks for ethanol production. These materials primarily consist of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Once the cellulose is converted to glucose, the glucose is easily fermented by yeast into ethanol.

It would be advantageous in the art to improve the ability to enzymatically degrade lignocellulosic feedstocks.

WO 2005/074647 discloses isolated polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity and polynucleotides thereof from Thielavia terrestris. WO 2005/074656 discloses an isolated polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity and the polynucleotide thereof from Thermoascus aurantiacus. WO 2007/089290 discloses an isolated polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity and the polynucleotide thereof from Trichoderma reesei.

The present invention provides polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity selected from the group consisting of:

(a) a polypeptide having at least 80% sequence identity to the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2;

(b) a polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide that hybridizes under high stringency conditions with (i) the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, (ii) the cDNA sequence contained in the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, or (iii) the full-length complementary strand of (i) or (ii);

(c) a polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide having at least 80% sequence identity to the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or the cDNA sequence thereof;

(d) a variant comprising a substitution, deletion, and/or insertion of one or more (several) amino acids of the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2; and

(e) a fragment of the polypeptide of (a), (b), (c), or (d) that has cellulolytic enhancing activity.

The present invention also relates to isolated polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides of the present invention; nucleic acid constructs, recombinant expression vectors, and recombinant host cells comprising the polynucleotides; and methods of producing the polypeptides.

The present invention also relates to methods for degrading or converting a cellulosic material, comprising: treating the cellulosic material with an enzyme composition in the presence of a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of the present invention. In a preferred aspect, the method further comprises recovering the degraded or converted cellulosic material.

The present invention also relates to methods of producing a fermentation product, comprising: (a) saccharifying a cellulosic material with an enzyme composition in the presence of a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of the present invention; (b) fermenting the saccharified cellulosic material with one or more fermenting microorganisms to produce the fermentation product; and (c) recovering the fermentation product from the fermentation.

The present invention also relates to methods of fermenting a cellulosic material, comprising: fermenting the cellulosic material with one or more fermenting microorganisms, wherein the cellulosic material is saccharified with an enzyme composition in the presence of a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of the present invention. In one aspect, the fermenting of the cellulosic material produces a fermentation product. In another aspect, the method further comprises recovering the fermentation product from the fermentation.

The present invention also relates to a polynucleotide encoding a signal peptide comprising or consisting of amino acids 1 to 21 of SEQ ID NO: 2, which is operably linked to a gene encoding a protein; nucleic acid constructs, expression vectors, and recombinant host cells comprising the polynucleotide; and methods of producing a protein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows the genomic DNA sequence and the deduced amino acid sequence of a Penicillium pinophilum strain NN046877 gene encoding a GH61A polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity (SEQ ID NOs: 1 and 2, respectively).

FIG. 2 shows a restriction map of pPFJO355.

FIG. 3 shows a restriction map of pPpin7.

FIG. 4 shows a restriction map of pGEM-T-Ppin7.

FIG. 5 shows hydrolysis vs. concentration of added Penicillium pinophilum GH61A polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity. Open circles: 3-day hydrolysis extent; closed circles: 7-day hydrolysis extent. Data are not corrected for sugars present in the PCS liquor. Data are fitted with a modified, non-cooperative, saturation-binding model.

DEFINITIONS

Cellulolytic enhancing activity: The term “cellulolytic enhancing activity” means a biological activity catalyzed by a GH61 polypeptide that enhances the hydrolysis of a cellulosic material by enzyme having cellulolytic activity. For purposes of the present invention, cellulolytic enhancing activity is determined by measuring the increase in reducing sugars or the increase of the total of cellobiose and glucose from the hydrolysis of a cellulosic material by cellulolytic enzyme under the following conditions: 1-50 mg of total protein/g of cellulose in PCS, wherein total protein is comprised of 50-99.5% w/w cellulolytic enzyme protein and 0.5-50% w/w protein of a GH61 polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity for 1-7 days at 50° C. compared to a control hydrolysis with equal total protein loading without cellulolytic enhancing activity (1-50 mg of cellulolytic protein/g of cellulose in PCS). In a preferred aspect, a mixture of CELLUCLAST® 1.5 L (Novozymes A/S, Bagsværd, Denmark) in the presence of 2-3% of total protein weight Aspergillus oryzae beta-glucosidase (recombinantly produced in Aspergillus oryzae according to WO 02/095014) or 2-3% of total protein weight Aspergillus fumigatus beta-glucosidase (recombinantly produced in Aspergillus oryzae as described in WO 2002/095014) of cellulase protein loading is used as the source of the cellulolytic activity.

The GH61 polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity enhance the hydrolysis of a cellulosic material catalyzed by enzyme having cellulolytic activity by reducing the amount of cellulolytic enzyme required to reach the same degree of hydrolysis preferably at least 1.01-fold, more preferably at least 1.05-fold, more preferably at least 1.10-fold, more preferably at least 1.25-fold, more preferably at least 1.5-fold, more preferably at least 2-fold, more preferably at least 3-fold, more preferably at least 4-fold, more preferably at least 5-fold, even more preferably at least 10-fold, and most preferably at least 20-fold.

The polypeptides of the present invention have at least 20%, e.g., at least 40%, at least 50%, at least 60%, at least 70%, at least 80%, at least 90%, at least 95%, and at least 100% of the cellulolytic enhancing activity of the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2.

Family 61 glycoside hydrolase: The term “Family 61 glycoside hydrolase” or “Family GH61” or “GH61” means a polypeptide falling into the glycoside hydrolase Family 61 according to Henrissat B., 1991, A classification of glycosyl hydrolases based on amino-acid sequence similarities, Biochem. J. 280: 309-316, and Henrissat B., and Bairoch A., 1996, Updating the sequence-based classification of glycosyl hydrolases, Biochem. J. 316: 695-696.

Cellulolytic enzyme or cellulase: The term “cellulolytic enzyme” or “cellulase” means one or more (several) enzymes that hydrolyze a cellulosic material. Such enzymes include endoglucanase(s), cellobiohydrolase(s), beta-glucosidase(s), or combinations thereof. The two basic approaches for measuring cellulolytic activity include: (1) measuring the total cellulolytic activity, and (2) measuring the individual cellulolytic activities (endoglucanases, cellobiohydrolases, and beta-glucosidases) as reviewed in Zhang et al., Outlook for cellulase improvement: Screening and selection strategies, 2006, Biotechnology Advances 24: 452-481. Total cellulolytic activity is usually measured using insoluble substrates, including Whatman No 1 filter paper, microcrystalline cellulose, bacterial cellulose, algal cellulose, cotton, pretreated lignocellulose, etc. The most common total cellulolytic activity assay is the filter paper assay using Whatman No 1 filter paper as the substrate. The assay was established by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) (Ghose, 1987, Measurement of cellulase activities, Pure Appl. Chem. 59: 257-68).

For purposes of the present invention, cellulolytic enzyme activity is determined by measuring the increase in hydrolysis of a cellulosic material by cellulolytic enzyme(s) under the following conditions: 1-20 mg of cellulolytic enzyme protein/g of cellulose in PCS for 3-7 days at 50° C. compared to a control hydrolysis without addition of cellulolytic enzyme protein. Typical conditions are 1 ml reactions, washed or unwashed PCS, 5% insoluble solids, 50 mM sodium acetate pH 5, 1 mM MnSO₄, 50° C., 72 hours, sugar analysis by AMINEX® HPX-87H column (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Hercules, Calif., USA).

Endoglucanase: The term “endoglucanase” means an endo-1,4-(1,3;1,4)-beta-D-glucan 4-glucanohydrolase (E.C. 3.2.1.4), which catalyses endohydrolysis of 1,4-beta-D-glycosidic linkages in cellulose, cellulose derivatives (such as carboxymethyl cellulose and hydroxyethyl cellulose), lichenin, beta-1,4 bonds in mixed beta-1,3 glucans such as cereal beta-D-glucans or xyloglucans, and other plant material containing cellulosic components. Endoglucanase activity can be determined by measuring reduction in substrate viscosity or increase in reducing ends determined by a reducing sugar assay (Zhang et al., 2006, Biotechnology Advances 24: 452-481). For purposes of the present invention, endoglucanase activity is determined using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as substrate according to the procedure of Ghose, 1987, Pure and Appl. Chem. 59: 257-268, at pH 5, 40° C.

Cellobiohydrolase: The term “cellobiohydrolase” means a 1,4-beta-D-glucan cellobiohydrolase (E.C. 3.2.1.91), which catalyzes the hydrolysis of 1,4-beta-D-glucosidic linkages in cellulose, cellooligosaccharides, or any beta-1,4-linked glucose containing polymer, releasing cellobiose from the reducing or non-reducing ends of the chain (Teeri, 1997, Crystalline cellulose degradation: New insight into the function of cellobiohydrolases, Trends in Biotechnology 15: 160-167; Teen et al., 1998, Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolases: why so efficient on crystalline cellulose?, Biochem. Soc. Trans. 26: 173-178). For purposes of the present invention, cellobiohydrolase activity is determined according to the procedures described by Lever et al., 1972, Anal. Biochem. 47: 273-279; van Tilbeurgh et al., 1982, FEBS Letters, 149: 152-156; van Tilbeurgh and Claeyssens, 1985, FEBS Letters, 187: 283-288; and Tomme et al., 1988, Eur. J. Biochem. 170: 575-581. In the present invention, the Lever et al. method can be employed to assess hydrolysis of cellulose in corn stover, while the methods of van Tilbeurgh et al. and Tomme et al. can be used to determine the cellobiohydrolase activity on a fluorescent disaccharide derivative, 4-methylumbelliferyl-β-D-lactoside.

Beta-glucosidase: The term “beta-glucosidase” means a beta-D-glucoside glucohydrolase (E.C. 3.2.1.21), which catalyzes the hydrolysis of terminal non-reducing beta-D-glucose residues with the release of beta-D-glucose. For purposes of the present invention, beta-glucosidase activity is determined according to the basic procedure described by Venturi et al., 2002, Extracellular beta-D-glucosidase from Chaetomium thermophilum var. coprophilum: production, purification and some biochemical properties, J. Basic Microbiol. 42: 55-66. One unit of beta-glucosidase is defined as 1.0 μmole of p-nitrophenolate anion produced per minute at 25° C., pH 4.8 from 1 mM p-nitrophenyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside as substrate in 50 mM sodium citrate containing 0.01% TWEEN® 20.

Hemicellulolytic enzyme or hemicellulase: The term “hemicellulolytic enzyme” or “hemicellulase” means one or more (several) enzymes that hydrolyze a hemicellulosic material. See, for example, Shallom, D. and Shoham, Y. Microbial hemicellulases. Current Opinion In Microbiology, 2003, 6(3): 219-228). Hemicellulases are key components in the degradation of plant biomass. Examples of hemicellulases include, but are not limited to, an acetylmannan esterase, an acetyxylan esterase, an arabinanase, an arabinofuranosidase, a coumaric acid esterase, a feruloyl esterase, a galactosidase, a glucuronidase, a glucuronoyl esterase, a mannanase, a mannosidase, a xylanase, and a xylosidase. The substrates of these enzymes, the hemicelluloses, are a heterogeneous group of branched and linear polysaccharides that are bound via hydrogen bonds to the cellulose microfibrils in the plant cell wall, crosslinking them into a robust network. Hemicelluloses are also covalently attached to lignin, forming together with cellulose a highly complex structure. The variable structure and organization of hemicelluloses require the concerted action of many enzymes for its complete degradation. The catalytic modules of hemicellulases are either glycoside hydrolases (GHs) that hydrolyze glycosidic bonds, or carbohydrate esterases (CEs), which hydrolyze ester linkages of acetate or ferulic acid side groups. These catalytic modules, based on homology of their primary sequence, can be assigned into GH and CE families marked by numbers. Some families, with overall similar fold, can be further grouped into clans, marked alphabetically (e.g., GH-A). A most informative and updated classification of these and other carbohydrate active enzymes is available on the Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes (CAZy) database. Hemicellulolytic enzyme activities can be measured according to Ghose and Bisaria, 1987, Pure & Appl. Chem. 59: 1739-1752.

Xylan degrading activity or xylanolytic activity: The term “xylan degrading activity” or “xylanolytic activity” means a biological activity that hydrolyzes xylan-containing material. The two basic approaches for measuring xylanolytic activity include: (1) measuring the total xylanolytic activity, and (2) measuring the individual xylanolytic activities (e.g., endoxylanases, beta-xylosidases, arabinofuranosidases, alpha-glucuronidases, acetylxylan esterases, feruloyl esterases, and alpha-glucuronyl esterases). Recent progress in assays of xylanolytic enzymes was summarized in several publications including Biely and Puchard, Recent progress in the assays of xylanolytic enzymes, 2006, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 86(11): 1636-1647; Spanikova and Biely, 2006, Glucuronoyl esterase-Novel carbohydrate esterase produced by Schizophyllum commune, FEBS Letters 580(19): 4597-4601; Herrmann, Vrsanska, Jurickova, Hirsch, Biely, and Kubicek, 1997, The beta-D-xylosidase of Trichoderma reesei is a multifunctional beta-D-xylan xylohydrolase, Biochemical Journal 321: 375-381.

Total xylan degrading activity can be measured by determining the reducing sugars formed from various types of xylan, including, for example, oat spelt, beechwood, and larchwood xylans, or by photometric determination of dyed xylan fragments released from various covalently dyed xylans. The most common total xylanolytic activity assay is based on production of reducing sugars from polymeric 4-O-methyl glucuronoxylan as described in Bailey, Biely, Poutanen, 1992, Interlaboratory testing of methods for assay of xylanase activity, Journal of Biotechnology 23(3): 257-270. Xylanase activity can also be determined with 0.2% AZCL-arabinoxylan as substrate in 0.01% Triton X-100 and 200 mM sodium phosphate buffer pH 6 at 37° C. One unit of xylanase activity is defined as 1.0 μmole of azurine produced per minute at 37° C., pH 6 from 0.2% AZCL-arabinoxylan as substrate in 200 mM sodium phosphate pH 6 buffer.

For purposes of the present invention, xylan degrading activity is determined by measuring the increase in hydrolysis of birchwood xylan (Sigma Chemical Co., Inc., St. Louis, Mo., USA) by xylan-degrading enzyme(s) under the following typical conditions: 1 ml reactions, 5 mg/ml substrate (total solids), 5 mg of xylanolytic protein/g of substrate, 50 mM sodium acetate pH 5, 50° C., 24 hours, sugar analysis using p-hydroxybenzoic acid hydrazide (PHBAH) assay as described by Lever, 1972, A new reaction for colorimetric determination of carbohydrates, Anal. Biochem 47: 273-279.

Xylanase: The term “xylanase” means a 1,4-beta-D-xylan-xylohydrolase (E.C. 3.2.1.8) that catalyzes the endohydrolysis of 1,4-beta-D-xylosidic linkages in xylans. For purposes of the present invention, xylanase activity is determined with 0.2% AZCL-arabinoxylan as substrate in 0.01% Triton X-100 and 200 mM sodium phosphate buffer pH 6 at 37° C. One unit of xylanase activity is defined as 1.0 μmole of azurine produced per minute at 37° C., pH 6 from 0.2% AZCL-arabinoxylan as substrate in 200 mM sodium phosphate pH 6 buffer.

Beta-xylosidase: The term “beta-xylosidase” means a beta-D-xyloside xylohydrolase (E.C. 3.2.1.37) that catalyzes the exo-hydrolysis of short beta (1→4)-xylooligosaccharides, to remove successive D-xylose residues from the non-reducing termini. For purposes of the present invention, one unit of beta-xylosidase is defined as 1.0 μmole of p-nitrophenolate anion produced per minute at 40° C., pH 5 from 1 mM p-nitrophenyl-beta-D-xyloside as substrate in 100 mM sodium citrate containing 0.01% TWEEN® 20.

Acetylxylan esterase: The term “acetylxylan esterase” means a carboxylesterase (EC 3.1.1.72) that catalyses the hydrolysis of acetyl groups from polymeric xylan, acetylated xylose, acetylated glucose, alpha-napthyl acetate, and p-nitrophenyl acetate. For purposes of the present invention, acetylxylan esterase activity is determined using 0.5 mM p-nitrophenylacetate as substrate in 50 mM sodium acetate pH 5.0 containing 0.01% TWEEN™ 20. One unit of acetylxylan esterase is defined as the amount of enzyme capable of releasing 1 μmole of p-nitrophenolate anion per minute at pH 5, 25° C.

Feruloyl esterase: The term “feruloyl esterase” means a 4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamoyl-sugar hydrolase (EC 3.1.1.73) that catalyzes the hydrolysis of the 4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamoyl (feruloyl) group from an esterified sugar, which is usually arabinose in “natural” substrates, to produce ferulate (4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamate). Feruloyl esterase is also known as ferulic acid esterase, hydroxycinnamoyl esterase, FAE-III, cinnamoyl ester hydrolase, FAEA, cinnAE, FAE-I, or FAE-II. For purposes of the present invention, feruloyl esterase activity is determined using 0.5 mM p-nitrophenylferulate as substrate in 50 mM sodium acetate pH 5.0. One unit of feruloyl esterase equals the amount of enzyme capable of releasing 1 μmole of p-nitrophenolate anion per minute at pH 5, 25° C.

Alpha-glucuronidase: The term “alpha-glucuronidase” means an alpha-D-glucosiduronate glucuronohydrolase (EC 3.2.1.139) that catalyzes the hydrolysis of an alpha-D-glucuronoside to D-glucuronate and an alcohol. For purposes of the present invention, alpha-glucuronidase activity is determined according to de Vries, 1998, J. Bacteriol. 180: 243-249. One unit of alpha-glucuronidase equals the amount of enzyme capable of releasing 1 μmole of glucuronic or 4-O-methylglucuronic acid per minute at pH 5, 40° C.

Alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase: The term “alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase” means an alpha-L-arabinofuranoside arabinofuranohydrolase (EC 3.2.1.55) that catalyzes the hydrolysis of terminal non-reducing alpha-L-arabinofuranoside residues in alpha-L-arabinosides. The enzyme acts on alpha-L-arabinofuranosides, alpha-L-arabinans containing (1,3)- and/or (1,5)-linkages, arabinoxylans, and arabinogalactans. Alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase is also known as arabinosidase, alpha-arabinosidase, alpha-L-arabinosidase, alpha-arabinofuranosidase, polysaccharide alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase, alpha-L-arabinofuranoside hydrolase, L-arabinosidase, or alpha-L-arabinanase. For purposes of the present invention, alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase activity is determined using 5 mg of medium viscosity wheat arabinoxylan (Megazyme International Ireland, Ltd., Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland) per ml of 100 mM sodium acetate pH 5 in a total volume of 200 μl for 30 minutes at 40° C. followed by arabinose analysis by AMINEX® HPX-87H column chromatography (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Hercules, Calif., USA).

Cellulosic material: The cellulosic material can be any material containing cellulose. The predominant polysaccharide in the primary cell wall of biomass is cellulose, the second most abundant is hemicellulose, and the third is pectin. The secondary cell wall, produced after the cell has stopped growing, also contains polysaccharides and is strengthened by polymeric lignin covalently cross-linked to hemicellulose. Cellulose is a homopolymer of anhydrocellobiose and thus a linear beta-(1-4)-D-glucan, while hemicelluloses include a variety of compounds, such as xylans, xyloglucans, arabinoxylans, and mannans in complex branched structures with a spectrum of substituents. Although generally polymorphous, cellulose is found in plant tissue primarily as an insoluble crystalline matrix of parallel glucan chains. Hemicelluloses usually hydrogen bond to cellulose, as well as to other hemicelluloses, which help stabilize the cell wall matrix.

Cellulose is generally found, for example, in the stems, leaves, hulls, husks, and cobs of plants or leaves, branches, and wood of trees. The cellulosic material can be, but is not limited to, herbaceous material, agricultural residue, forestry residue, municipal solid waste, waste paper, and pulp and paper mill residue (see, for example, Wiselogel et al., 1995, in Handbook on Bioethanol (Charles E. Wyman, editor), pp. 105-118, Taylor & Francis, Washington D.C.; Wyman, 1994, Bioresource Technology 50: 3-16; Lynd, 1990, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology 24/25: 695-719; Mosier et al., 1999, Recent Progress in Bioconversion of Lignocellulosics, in Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, T. Scheper, managing editor, Volume 65, pp. 23-40, Springer-Verlag, New York). It is understood herein that the cellulose may be in the form of lignocellulose, a plant cell wall material containing lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose in a mixed matrix. In a preferred aspect, the cellulosic material is lignocelluloses, which comprises cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.

In one aspect, the cellulosic material is herbaceous material. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is agricultural residue. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is forestry residue. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is municipal solid waste. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is waste paper. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is pulp and paper mill residue.

In another aspect, the cellulosic material is corn stover. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is corn fiber. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is corn cob. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is orange peel. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is rice straw. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is wheat straw. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is switch grass. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is miscanthus. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is bagasse.

In another aspect, the cellulosic material is microcrystalline cellulose. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is bacterial cellulose. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is algal cellulose. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is cotton linter. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is amorphous phosphoric-acid treated cellulose. In another aspect, the cellulosic material is filter paper.

The cellulosic material may be used as is or may be subjected to pretreatment, using conventional methods known in the art, as described herein. In a preferred aspect, the cellulosic material is pretreated.

Pretreated corn stover: The term “PCS” or “Pretreated Corn Stover” means a cellulosic material derived from corn stover by treatment with heat and dilute sulfuric acid.

Xylan-containing material: The term “xylan-containing material” means any material comprising a plant cell wall polysaccharide containing a backbone of beta-(1-4)-linked xylose residues. Xylans of terrestrial plants are heteropolymers possessing a beta-(1-4)-D-xylopyranose backbone, which is branched by short carbohydrate chains. They comprise D-glucuronic acid or its 4-O-methyl ether, L-arabinose, and/or various oligosaccharides, composed of D-xylose, L-arabinose, D- or L-galactose, and D-glucose. Xylan-type polysaccharides can be divided into homoxylans and heteroxylans, which include glucuronoxylans, (arabino)glucuronoxylans, (glucurono)arabinoxylans, arabinoxylans, and complex heteroxylans. See, for example, Ebringerova et al., 2005, Adv. Polym. Sci. 186: 1-67.

In the methods of the present invention, any material containing xylan may be used. In a preferred aspect, the xylan-containing material is lignocellulose.

Isolated or Purified: The term “isolated” or “purified” means a polypeptide or polynucleotide that is removed from at least one component with which it is naturally associated. For example, a polypeptide may be at least 1% pure, e.g., at least 5% pure, at least 10% pure, at least 20% pure, at least 40% pure, at least 60% pure, at least 80% pure, at least 90% pure, or at least 95% pure, as determined by SDS-PAGE, and a polynucleotide may be at least 1% pure, e.g., at least 5% pure, at least 10% pure, at least 20% pure, at least 40% pure, at least 60% pure, at least 80% pure, at least 90% pure, or at least 95% pure, as determined by agarose electrophoresis.

Mature polypeptide: The term “mature polypeptide” means a polypeptide in its final form following translation and any post-translational modifications, such as N-terminal processing, C-terminal truncation, glycosylation, phosphorylation, etc. In one aspect, the mature polypeptide is amino acids 22 to 322 of SEQ ID NO: 2 based on the SignalP program (Nielsen et al., 1997, Protein Engineering 10:1-6) that predicts amino acids 1 to 21 of SEQ ID NO: 2 are a signal peptide. It is known in the art that a host cell may produce a mixture of two of more different mature polypeptides (i.e., with a different C-terminal and/or N-terminal amino acid) expressed by the same polynucleotide.

Mature polypeptide coding sequence: The term “mature polypeptide coding sequence” means a polynucleotide that encodes a mature polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity. In one aspect, the mature polypeptide coding sequence is nucleotides 64 to 1018 of SEQ ID NO: 1 based on the SignalP program (Nielsen et al., 1997, supra) that predicts nucleotides 1 to 63 of SEQ ID NO: 1 encode a signal peptide. In another aspect, the mature polypeptide coding sequence is the cDNA sequence contained in nucleotides 64 to 1018 of SEQ ID NO: 1.

Sequence Identity: The relatedness between two amino acid sequences or between two nucleotide sequences is described by the parameter “sequence identity”.

For purposes of the present invention, the degree of sequence identity between two amino acid sequences is determined using the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm (Needleman and Wunsch, 1970, J. Mol. Biol. 48: 443-453) as implemented in the Needle program of the EMBOSS package (EMBOSS: The European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite, Rice et al., 2000, Trends Genet. 16: 276-277), preferably version 3.0.0 or later. The optional parameters used are gap open penalty of 10, gap extension penalty of 0.5, and the EBLOSUM62 (EMBOSS version of BLOSUM62) substitution matrix. The output of Needle labeled “longest identity”(obtained using the -nobrief option) is used as the percent identity and is calculated as follows:

(Identical Residues×100)/(Length of Alignment−Total Number of Gaps in Alignment)

For purposes of the present invention, the degree of sequence identity between two deoxyribonucleotide sequences is determined using the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm (Needleman and Wunsch, 1970, supra) as implemented in the Needle program of the EMBOSS package (EMBOSS: The European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite, Rice et al., 2000, supra), preferably version 3.0.0 or later. The optional parameters used are gap open penalty of 10, gap extension penalty of 0.5, and the EDNAFULL (EMBOSS version of NCBI NUC4.4) substitution matrix. The output of Needle labeled “longest identity” (obtained using the -nobrief option) is used as the percent identity and is calculated as follows:

(Identical Deoxyribonucleotides×100)/(Length of Alignment−Total Number of Gaps in Alignment)

Fragment: The term “fragment” means a polypeptide having one or more (several) amino acids deleted from the amino and/or carboxyl terminus of a mature polypeptide; wherein the fragment has cellulolytic enhancing activity. In one aspect, a fragment contains at least 255 amino acid residues, e.g., at least 270 amino acid residues or at least 285 amino acid residues of the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2.

Subsequence: The term “subsequence” means a polynucleotide having one or more (several) nucleotides deleted from the 5′ and/or 3′ end of a mature polypeptide coding sequence; wherein the subsequence encodes a fragment having cellulolytic enhancing activity. In one aspect, a subsequence contains at least 765 nucleotides, e.g., at least 810 nucleotides or at least 855 nucleotides of the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1.

Allelic variant: The term “allelic variant” means any of two or more alternative forms of a gene occupying the same chromosomal locus. Allelic variation arises naturally through mutation, and may result in polymorphism within populations. Gene mutations can be silent (no change in the encoded polypeptide) or may encode polypeptides having altered amino acid sequences. An allelic variant of a polypeptide is a polypeptide encoded by an allelic variant of a gene.

Coding sequence: The term “coding sequence” means a polynucleotide, which directly specifies the amino acid sequence of a polypeptide. The boundaries of the coding sequence are generally determined by an open reading frame, which usually begins with the ATG start codon or alternative start codons such as GTG and TTG and ends with a stop codon such as TAA, TAG, and TGA. The coding sequence may be a DNA, cDNA, synthetic, or recombinant polynucleotide.

cDNA: The term “cDNA” means a DNA molecule that can be prepared by reverse transcription from a mature, spliced, mRNA molecule obtained from a eukaryotic cell. cDNA lacks intron sequences that may be present in the corresponding genomic DNA. The initial, primary RNA transcript is a precursor to mRNA that is processed through a series of steps, including splicing, before appearing as mature spliced mRNA.

Nucleic acid construct: The term “nucleic acid construct” means a nucleic acid molecule, either single- or double-stranded, which is isolated from a naturally occurring gene or is modified to contain segments of nucleic acids in a manner that would not otherwise exist in nature or which is synthetic. The term nucleic acid construct is synonymous with the term “expression cassette” when the nucleic acid construct contains the control sequences required for expression of a coding sequence of the present invention.

Control sequences: The term “control sequences” means all components necessary for the expression of a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide of the present invention. Each control sequence may be native or foreign to the polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide or native or foreign to each other. Such control sequences include, but are not limited to, a leader, polyadenylation sequence, propeptide sequence, promoter, signal peptide sequence, and transcription terminator. At a minimum, the control sequences include a promoter, and transcriptional and translational stop signals. The control sequences may be provided with linkers for the purpose of introducing specific restriction sites facilitating ligation of the control sequences with the coding region of the polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide.

Operably linked: The term “operably linked” means a configuration in which a control sequence is placed at an appropriate position relative to the coding sequence of a polynucleotide such that the control sequence directs the expression of the coding sequence.

Expression: The term “expression” includes any step involved in the production of the polypeptide including, but not limited to, transcription, post-transcriptional modification, translation, post-translational modification, and secretion.

Expression vector: The term “expression vector” means a linear or circular DNA molecule that comprises a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide and is operably linked to additional nucleotides that provide for its expression.

Host cell: The term “host cell” means any cell type that is susceptible to transformation, transfection, transduction, and the like with a nucleic acid construct or expression vector comprising a polynucleotide of the present invention. The term “host cell” encompasses any progeny of a parent cell that is not identical to the parent cell due to mutations that occur during replication.

Variant: The term “variant” means a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity comprising an alteration, i.e., a substitution, insertion, and/or deletion of one or more (several) amino acid residues at one or more (several) positions. A substitution means a replacement of an amino acid occupying a position with a different amino acid; a deletion means removal of an amino acid occupying a position; and an insertion means adding one or more (several) amino acids, e.g., 1-5 amino acids, adjacent to an amino acid occupying a position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Polypeptides Having Cellulolytic Enhancing Activity

The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity selected from the group consisting of:

(a) a polypeptide having at least 80% sequence identity to the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2;

(b) a polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide that hybridizes under high stringency conditions with (i) the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, (ii) the cDNA sequence contained in the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, or (iii) the full-length complementary strand of (i) or (ii);

(c) a polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide having at least 80% sequence identity to the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or the cDNA sequence thereof;

(d) a variant comprising a substitution, deletion, and/or insertion of one or more (several) amino acids of the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2; and

(e) a fragment of a polypeptide of (a), (b), (c), or (d) that has cellulolytic enhancing activity.

The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having a sequence identity to the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2 of at least 80%, e.g., at least 85%, at least 90%, at least 91%, at least 92%, at least 93%, at least 94%, at least 95%, at least 96%, at least 97%, at least 98%, at least 99%, or 100%, which have cellulolytic enhancing activity. In one aspect, the polypeptides differ by no more than ten amino acids, e.g., by five amino acids, by four amino acids, by three amino acids, by two amino acids, and by one amino acid from the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2.

A polypeptide of the present invention preferably comprises or consists of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 or an allelic variant thereof; or is a fragment thereof having cellulolytic enhancing activity. In another aspect, the polypeptide comprises or consists of the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2. In another preferred aspect, the polypeptide comprises or consists of amino acids 22 to 322 of SEQ ID NO: 2.

The present invention also relates to isolated polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity that are encoded by polynucleotides that hybridize under high stringency conditions or very high stringency conditions with (i) the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, (ii) the cDNA sequence contained in the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, or (iii) the full-length complementary strand of (i) or (ii) (J. Sambrook, E. F. Fritsch, and T. Maniatis, 1989, Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual, 2d edition, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.).

The polynucleotide of SEQ ID NO: 1 or a subsequence thereof, as well as the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 or a fragment thereof, may be used to design nucleic acid probes to identify and clone DNA encoding polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity from strains of different genera or species according to methods well known in the art. In particular, such probes can be used for hybridization with the genomic DNA or cDNA of the genus or species of interest, following standard Southern blotting procedures, in order to identify and isolate the corresponding gene therein. Such probes can be considerably shorter than the entire sequence, but should be at least 14, e.g., at least 25, at least 35, or at least 70 nucleotides in length. Preferably, the nucleic acid probe is at least 100 nucleotides in length, e.g., at least 200 nucleotides, at least 300 nucleotides, at least 400 nucleotides, at least 500 nucleotides, at least 600 nucleotides, at least 700 nucleotides, at least 800 nucleotides, or at least 900 nucleotides in length. Both DNA and RNA probes can be used. The probes are typically labeled for detecting the corresponding gene (for example, with ³²P, ³H, ³⁵S, biotin, or avidin). Such probes are encompassed by the present invention.

A genomic DNA or cDNA library prepared from such other strains may be screened for DNA that hybridizes with the probes described above and encodes a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity. Genomic or other DNA from such other strains may be separated by agarose or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, or other separation techniques. DNA from the libraries or the separated DNA may be transferred to and immobilized on nitrocellulose or other suitable carrier material. In order to identify a clone or DNA that is homologous with SEQ ID NO: 1 or a subsequence thereof, the carrier material is preferably used in a Southern blot.

For purposes of the present invention, hybridization indicates that the polynucleotide hybridizes to a labeled nucleic acid probe corresponding to SEQ ID NO: 1; the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; the cDNA sequence contained in the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; its full-length complementary strand; or a subsequence thereof; under very low to very high stringency conditions. Molecules to which the nucleic acid probe hybridizes under these conditions can be detected using, for example, X-ray film.

In one aspect, the nucleic acid probe is the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or the cDNA sequence thereof. In another aspect, the nucleic acid probe is a polynucleotide that encodes the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2 or the mature polypeptide thereof; or a fragment thereof. In another preferred aspect, the nucleic acid probe is SEQ ID NO: 1 or the cDNA sequence thereof. In another aspect, the nucleic acid probe is the polynucleotide contained in plasmid pGEM-T-Ppin7 which is contained in E. coli DSM 22711, wherein the polynucleotide encodes a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity. In another aspect, the nucleic acid probe is the mature polypeptide coding region contained in plasmid pGEM-T-Ppin7 which is contained in E. coli DSM 22711.

For long probes of at least 100 nucleotides in length, very low to very high stringency conditions are defined as prehybridization and hybridization at 42° C. in 5×SSPE, 0.3% SDS, 200 micrograms/ml sheared and denatured salmon sperm DNA, and either 25% formamide for very low and low stringencies, 35% formamide for medium and medium-high stringencies, or 50% formamide for high and very high stringencies, following standard Southern blotting procedures for 12 to 24 hours optimally. The carrier material is finally washed three times each for 15 minutes using 2×SSC, 0.2% SDS at 45° C. (very low stringency), at 50° C. (low stringency), at 55° C. (medium stringency), at 60° C. (medium-high stringency), at 65° C. (high stringency), and at 70° C. (very high stringency).

For short probes of about 15 nucleotides to about 70 nucleotides in length, stringency conditions are defined as prehybridization and hybridization at about 5° C. to about 10° C. below the calculated T_(m) using the calculation according to Bolton and McCarthy (1962, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 48:1390) in 0.9 M NaCl, 0.09 M Tris-HCl pH 7.6, 6 mM EDTA, 0.5% NP-40, 1×Denhardt's solution, 1 mM sodium pyrophosphate, 1 mM sodium monobasic phosphate, 0.1 mM ATP, and 0.2 mg of yeast RNA per ml following standard Southern blotting procedures for 12 to 24 hours optimally. The carrier material is finally washed once in 6×SCC plus 0.1% SDS for 15 minutes and twice each for 15 minutes using 6×SSC at 5° C. to 10° C. below the calculated T_(m).

The present invention also relates to isolated polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity encoded by polynucleotides having a sequence identity to the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or the cDNA sequence thereof of at least 80%, e.g., at least 85%, at least 90%, at least 91%, at least 92%, at least 93%, at least 94%, at least 95%, at least 96%, at least 97%, at least 98%, at least 99%, or 100%.

The present invention also relates to variants comprising a substitution, deletion, and/or insertion of one or more (or several) amino acids of the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2, or a homologous sequence thereof. Preferably, amino acid changes are of a minor nature, that is conservative amino acid substitutions or insertions that do not significantly affect the folding and/or activity of the protein; small deletions, typically of one to about 30 amino acids; small amino- or carboxyl-terminal extensions, such as an amino-terminal methionine residue; a small linker peptide of up to about 20-25 residues; or a small extension that facilitates purification by changing net charge or another function, such as a poly-histidine tract, an antigenic epitope or a binding domain.

Examples of conservative substitutions are within the group of basic amino acids (arginine, lysine and histidine), acidic amino acids (glutamic acid and aspartic acid), polar amino acids (glutamine and asparagine), hydrophobic amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine), aromatic amino acids (phenylalanine, tryptophan and tyrosine), and small amino acids (glycine, alanine, serine, threonine and methionine). Amino acid substitutions that do not generally alter specific activity are known in the art and are described, for example, by H. Neurath and R. L. Hill, 1979, In, The Proteins, Academic Press, New York. The most commonly occurring exchanges are Ala/Ser, Val/Ile, Asp/Glu, Thr/Ser, Ala/Gly, Ala/Thr, Ser/Asn, Ala/Val, Ser/Gly, Tyr/Phe, Ala/Pro, Lys/Arg, Asp/Asn, Leu/Ile, Leu/Val, Ala/Glu, and Asp/Gly.

Alternatively, the amino acid changes are of such a nature that the physico-chemical properties of the polypeptides are altered. For example, amino acid changes may improve the thermal stability of the polypeptide, alter the substrate specificity, change the pH optimum, and the like.

Essential amino acids in a parent polypeptide can be identified according to procedures known in the art, such as site-directed mutagenesis or alanine-scanning mutagenesis (Cunningham and Wells, 1989, Science 244: 1081-1085). In the latter technique, single alanine mutations are introduced at every residue in the molecule, and the resultant mutant molecules are tested for cellulolytic enhancing activity to identify amino acid residues that are critical to the activity of the molecule. See also, Hilton et al., 1996, J. Biol. Chem. 271: 4699-4708. The active site of the enzyme or other biological interaction can also be determined by physical analysis of structure, as determined by such techniques as nuclear magnetic resonance, crystallography, electron diffraction, or photoaffinity labeling, in conjunction with mutation of putative contact site amino acids. See, for example, de Vos et al., 1992, Science 255: 306-312; Smith et al., 1992, J. Mol. Biol. 224: 899-904; Wlodaver et al., 1992, FEBS Lett. 309: 59-64. The identities of essential amino acids can also be inferred from analysis of identities with polypeptides that are related to the parent polypeptide.

Single or multiple amino acid substitutions, deletions, and/or insertions can be made and tested using known methods of mutagenesis, recombination, and/or shuffling, followed by a relevant screening procedure, such as those disclosed by Reidhaar-Olson and Sauer, 1988, Science 241: 53-57; Bowie and Sauer, 1989, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86: 2152-2156; WO 95/17413; or WO 95/22625. Other methods that can be used include error-prone PCR, phage display (e.g., Lowman et al., 1991, Biochemistry 30: 10832-10837; U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,409; WO 92/06204), and region-directed mutagenesis (Derbyshire et al., 1986, Gene 46: 145; Ner et al., 1988, DNA 7: 127).

Mutagenesis/shuffling methods can be combined with high-throughput, automated screening methods to detect activity of cloned, mutagenized polypeptides expressed by host cells (Ness et al., 1999, Nature Biotechnology 17: 893-896). Mutagenized DNA molecules that encode active polypeptides can be recovered from the host cells and rapidly sequenced using standard methods in the art. These methods allow the rapid determination of the importance of individual amino acid residues in a polypeptide.

The total number of amino acid substitutions, deletions and/or insertions of the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2 is not more than 10, e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9.

The polypeptide may be hybrid polypeptide in which a portion of one polypeptide is fused at the N-terminus or the C-terminus of a portion of another polypeptide.

The polypeptide may be a fused polypeptide or cleavable fusion polypeptide in which another polypeptide is fused at the N-terminus or the C-terminus of the polypeptide of the present invention. A fused polypeptide is produced by fusing a polynucleotide encoding another polypeptide to a polynucleotide of the present invention. Techniques for producing fusion polypeptides are known in the art, and include ligating the coding sequences encoding the polypeptides so that they are in frame and that expression of the fused polypeptide is under control of the same promoter(s) and terminator. Fusion proteins may also be constructed using intein technology in which fusions are created post-translationally (Cooper et al., 1993, EMBO J. 12: 2575-2583; Dawson et al., 1994, Science 266: 776-779).

A fusion polypeptide can further comprise a cleavage site between the two polypeptides. Upon secretion of the fusion protein, the site is cleaved releasing the two polypeptides. Examples of cleavage sites include, but are not limited to, the sites disclosed in Martin et al., 2003, J. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 3: 568-576; Svetina et al., 2000, J. Biotechnol. 76: 245-251; Rasmussen-Wilson et al., 1997, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 63: 3488-3493; Ward et al., 1995, Biotechnology 13: 498-503; and Contreras et al., 1991, Biotechnology 9: 378-381; Eaton et al., 1986, Biochemistry 25: 505-512; Collins-Racie et al., 1995, Biotechnology 13: 982-987; Carter et al., 1989, Proteins: Structure, Function, and Genetics 6: 240-248; and Stevens, 2003, Drug Discovery World 4: 35-48.

Sources of Polypeptides Having Cellulolytic Enhancing Activity

A polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of the present invention may be obtained from microorganisms of any genus. For purposes of the present invention, the term “obtained from” as used herein in connection with a given source shall mean that the polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide is produced by the source or by a strain in which the polynucleotide from the source has been inserted. In one aspect, the polypeptide obtained from a given source is secreted extracellularly.

The polypeptide may be a bacterial polypeptide. For example, the polypeptide may be a gram-positive bacterial polypeptide such as a Bacillus, Clostridium, Enterococcus, Geobacillus, Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Oceanobacillus, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, or Streptomyces polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity, or a gram-negative bacterial polypeptide such as a Campylobacter, E. coli, Flavobacterium, Fusobacterium, Helicobacter, Ilyobacter, Neisseria, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, or Ureaplasma polypeptide.

In one aspect, the polypeptide is a Bacillus alkalophilus, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus brevis, Bacillus circulans, Bacillus clausii, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus firmus, Bacillus lautus, Bacillus lentus, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus stearothermophilus, Bacillus subtilis, or Bacillus thuringiensis polypeptide.

In another aspect, the polypeptide is a Streptococcus equisimilis, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus uberis, or Streptococcus equi subsp. Zooepidemicus polypeptide.

In another aspect, the polypeptide is a Streptomyces achromogenes, Streptomyces avermitilis, Streptomyces coelicolor, Streptomyces griseus, or Streptomyces lividans polypeptide.

The polypeptide may also be a fungal polypeptide. For example, the polypeptide may be a yeast polypeptide such as a Candida, Kluyveromyces, Pichia, Saccharomyces, Schizosaccharomyces, or Yarrowia polypeptide; or a filamentous fungal polypeptide such as an Acremonium, Agaricus, Alternaria, Aspergillus, Aureobasidium, Botryospaeria, Ceriporiopsis, Chaetomidium, Chrysosporium, Claviceps, Cochliobolus, Coprinopsis, Coptotermes, Corynascus, Cryphonectria, Cryptococcus, Diplodia, Exidia, Filibasidium, Fusarium, Gibberella, Holomastigotoides, Humicola, Irpex, Lentinula, Leptospaeria, Magnaporthe, Melanocarpus, Meripilus, Mucor, Myceliophthora, Neocallimastix, Neurospora, Paecilomyces, Phanerochaete, Piromyces, Poitrasia, Pseudoplectania, Pseudotrichonympha, Rhizomucor, Schizophyllum, Scytalidium, Talaromyces, Thermoascus, Thielavia, Tolypocladium, Trichoderma, Trichophaea, Verticillium, Volvariella, or Xylaria polypeptide.

In another aspect, the polypeptide is a Penicillium polypeptide.

In another aspect, the polypeptide is a Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces diastaticus, Saccharomyces douglasii, Saccharomyces kluyveri, Saccharomyces norbensis, or Saccharomyces oviformis polypeptide.

In another aspect, the polypeptide is an Acremonium cellulolyticus, Aspergillus aculeatus, Aspergillus awamori, Aspergillus foetidus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus japonicus, Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae, Chrysosporium inops, Chrysosporium keratinophilum, Chrysosporium lucknowense, Chrysosporium merdarium, Chrysosporium pannicola, Chrysosporium queenslandicum, Chrysosporium tropicum, Chrysosporium zonatum, Fusarium bactridioides, Fusarium cerealis, Fusarium crookwellense, Fusarium culmorum, Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium graminum, Fusarium heterosporum, Fusarium negundi, Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium reticulatum, Fusarium roseum, Fusarium sambucinum, Fusarium sarcochroum, Fusarium sporotrichioides, Fusarium sulphureum, Fusarium torulosum, Fusarium trichothecioides, Fusarium venenatum, Humicola grisea, Humicola insolens, Humicola lanuginosa, Irpex lacteus, Mucor miehei, Myceliophthora thermophila, Neurospora crassa, Penicillium funiculosum, Penicillium purpurogenum, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Thielavia achromatica, Thielavia albomyces, Thielavia albopilosa, Thielavia australeinsis, Thielavia fimeti, Thielavia microspora, Thielavia ovispora, Thielavia peruviana, Thielavia setosa, Thielavia spededonium, Thielavia subthermophila, Thielavia terrestris, Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma koningii, Trichoderma longibrachiatum, Trichoderma reesei, or Trichoderma viride polypeptide.

In another aspect, the polypeptide is a Penicillium pinophilum polypeptide.

It will be understood that for the aforementioned species the invention encompasses both the perfect and imperfect states, and other taxonomic equivalents, e.g., anamorphs, regardless of the species name by which they are known. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize the identity of appropriate equivalents.

Strains of these species are readily accessible to the public in a number of culture collections, such as the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen and Zellkulturen GmbH (DSMZ), Centraalbureau Voor Schimmelcultures (CBS), and Agricultural Research Service Patent Culture Collection, Northern Regional Research Center (NRRL).

The polypeptide may be identified and obtained from other sources including microorganisms isolated from nature (e.g., soil, composts, water, etc.) using the above-mentioned probes. Techniques for isolating microorganisms from natural habitats are well known in the art. The polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide may then be obtained by similarly screening a genomic or cDNA library of another microorganism or mixed DNA sample. Once a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide has been detected with the probe(s), the polynucleotide can be isolated or cloned by utilizing techniques that are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art (see, e.g., Sambrook et al., 1989, supra).

Polynucleotides

The present invention also relates to isolated polynucleotides encoding a polypeptide of the present invention.

The techniques used to isolate or clone a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide are known in the art and include isolation from genomic DNA, preparation from cDNA, or a combination thereof. The cloning of the polynucleotides from such genomic DNA can be effected, e.g., by using the well known polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or antibody screening of expression libraries to detect cloned DNA fragments with shared structural features. See, e.g., Innis et al., 1990, PCR: A Guide to Methods and Application, Academic Press, New York. Other nucleic acid amplification procedures such as ligase chain reaction (LCR), ligation activated transcription (LAT) and polynucleotide-based amplification (NASBA) may be used. The polynucleotides may be cloned from a strain of Penicillium, or another or related organism and thus, for example, may be an allelic or species variant of the polypeptide encoding region of the polynucleotide.

The present invention also relates to isolated polynucleotides comprising or consisting of polynucleotides having a degree of sequence identity to the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or the cDNA sequence thereof of at least 80%, e.g., at least 85%, at least 90%, at least 91%, at least 92%, at least 93%, at least 94%, at least 95%, at least 96%, at least 97%, at least 98%, at least 99%, or 100%, which encode a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity.

Modification of a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide of the present invention may be necessary for the synthesis of polypeptides substantially similar to the polypeptide. The term “substantially similar” to the polypeptide refers to non-naturally occurring forms of the polypeptide. These polypeptides may differ in some engineered way from the polypeptide isolated from its native source, e.g., variants that differ in specific activity, thermostability, pH optimum, or the like. The variant may be constructed on the basis of the polynucleotide presented as the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or the cDNA sequence thereof, e.g., a subsequence thereof, and/or by introduction of nucleotide substitutions that do not result in a change in the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide, but which correspond to the codon usage of the host organism intended for production of the enzyme, or by introduction of nucleotide substitutions that may give rise to a different amino acid sequence. For a general description of nucleotide substitution, see, e.g., Ford et al., 1991, Protein Expression and Purification 2: 95-107.

The present invention also relates to isolated polynucleotides encoding polypeptides of the present invention, which hybridize under high stringency conditions or very high stringency conditions with (i) the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, (ii) the cDNA sequence contained in the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, or (iii) the full-length complementary strand of (i) or (ii); or allelic variants and subsequences thereof (Sambrook et al., 1989, supra), as defined herein.

In one aspect, the polynucleotide comprises or consists of SEQ ID NO: 1, the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, or the sequence contained in plasmid pGEM-T-Ppin7 which is contained in E. coli DSM 22711, or a subsequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 that encodes a fragment of SEQ ID NO: 2 having cellulolytic enhancing activity.

Nucleic Acid Constructs

The present invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs comprising a polynucleotide of the present invention operably linked to one or more (several) control sequences that direct the expression of the coding sequence in a suitable host cell under conditions compatible with the control sequences.

A polynucleotide may be manipulated in a variety of ways to provide for expression of the polypeptide. Manipulation of the polynucleotide prior to its insertion into a vector may be desirable or necessary depending on the expression vector. The techniques for modifying polynucleotides utilizing recombinant DNA methods are well known in the art.

The control sequence may be a promoter sequence, a polynucleotide that is recognized by a host cell for expression of a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide of the present invention. The promoter sequence contains transcriptional control sequences that mediate the expression of the polypeptide. The promoter may be any polynucleotide that shows transcriptional activity in the host cell of choice including mutant, truncated, and hybrid promoters, and may be obtained from genes encoding extracellular or intracellular polypeptides either homologous or heterologous to the host cell.

Examples of suitable promoters for directing the transcription of the nucleic acid constructs of the present invention in a bacterial host cell are the promoters obtained from the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens alpha-amylase gene (amyQ), Bacillus licheniformis alpha-amylase gene (amyL), Bacillus licheniformis penicillinase gene (penP), Bacillus stearothermophilus maltogenic amylase gene (amyM), Bacillus subtilis levansucrase gene (sacB), Bacillus subtilis xylA and xylB genes, E. coli lac operon, Streptomyces coelicolor agarase gene (dagA), and prokaryotic beta-lactamase gene (Villa-Kamaroff et al., 1978, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 75: 3727-3731), as well as the tac promoter (DeBoer et al., 1983, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80: 21-25). Further promoters are described in “Useful proteins from recombinant bacteria” in Gilbert et al., 1980, Scientific American, 242: 74-94; and in Sambrook et al., 1989, supra.

Examples of suitable promoters for directing the transcription of the nucleic acid constructs of the present invention in a filamentous fungal host cell are promoters obtained from the genes for Aspergillus nidulans acetamidase, Aspergillus niger neutral alpha-amylase, Aspergillus niger acid stable alpha-amylase, Aspergillus niger or Aspergillus awamori glucoamylase (glaA), Aspergillus oryzae TAKA amylase, Aspergillus oryzae alkaline protease, Aspergillus oryzae triose phosphate isomerase, Fusarium oxysporum trypsin-like protease (WO 96/00787), Fusarium venenatum amyloglucosidase (WO 00/56900), Fusarium venenatum Daria (WO 00/56900), Fusarium venenatum Quinn (WO 00/56900), Rhizomucor miehei lipase, Rhizomucor miehei aspartic proteinase, Trichoderma reesei beta-glucosidase, Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I, Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase II, Trichoderma reesei endoglucanase I, Trichoderma reesei endoglucanase II, Trichoderma reesei endoglucanase III, Trichoderma reesei endoglucanase IV, Trichoderma reesei endoglucanase V, Trichoderma reesei xylanase I, Trichoderma reesei xylanase II, Trichoderma reesei beta-xylosidase, as well as the NA2-tpi promoter (a modified promoter from a gene encoding a neutral alpha-amylase in Aspergilli in which the untranslated leader has been replaced by an untranslated leader from a gene encoding triose phosphate isomerase in Aspergilli; non-limiting examples include modified promoters from the gene encoding neutral alpha-amylase in Aspergillus niger in which the untranslated leader has been replaced by an untranslated leader from the gene encoding triose phosphate isomerase in Aspergillus nidulans or Aspergillus oryzae); and mutant, truncated, and hybrid promoters thereof.

In a yeast host, useful promoters are obtained from the genes for Saccharomyces cerevisiae enolase (ENO-1), Saccharomyces cerevisiae galactokinase (GAL1), Saccharomyces cerevisiae alcohol dehydrogenase/glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (ADH1, ADH2/GAP), Saccharomyces cerevisiae triose phosphate isomerase (TPI), Saccharomyces cerevisiae metallothionein (CUP1), and Saccharomyces cerevisiae 3-phosphoglycerate kinase. Other useful promoters for yeast host cells are described by Romanos et al., 1992, Yeast 8: 423-488.

The control sequence may also be a suitable transcription terminator sequence, which is recognized by a host cell to terminate transcription. The terminator sequence is operably linked to the 3′-terminus of the polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide. Any terminator that is functional in the host cell of choice may be used in the present invention.

Preferred terminators for filamentous fungal host cells are obtained from the genes for Aspergillus nidulans anthranilate synthase, Aspergillus niger glucoamylase, Aspergillus niger alpha-glucosidase, Aspergillus oryzae TAKA amylase, and Fusarium oxysporum trypsin-like protease.

Preferred terminators for yeast host cells are obtained from the genes for Saccharomyces cerevisiae enolase, Saccharomyces cerevisiae cytochrome C(CYC1), and Saccharomyces cerevisiae glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Other useful terminators for yeast host cells are described by Romanos et al., 1992, supra.

The control sequence may also be a suitable leader sequence, when transcribed is a nontranslated region of an mRNA that is important for translation by the host cell. The leader sequence is operably linked to the 5′-terminus of the polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide. Any leader sequence that is functional in the host cell of choice may be used.

Preferred leaders for filamentous fungal host cells are obtained from the genes for Aspergillus oryzae TAKA amylase and Aspergillus nidulans triose phosphate isomerase.

Suitable leaders for yeast host cells are obtained from the genes for Saccharomyces cerevisiae enolase (ENO-1), Saccharomyces cerevisiae 3-phosphoglycerate kinase, Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-factor, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae alcohol dehydrogenase/glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (ADH2/GAP).

The control sequence may also be a polyadenylation sequence, a sequence operably linked to the 3′-terminus of the polynucleotide and, when transcribed, is recognized by the host cell as a signal to add polyadenosine residues to transcribed mRNA. Any polyadenylation sequence that is functional in the host cell of choice may be used.

Preferred polyadenylation sequences for filamentous fungal host cells are obtained from the genes for Aspergillus oryzae TAKA amylase, Aspergillus niger glucoamylase, Aspergillus nidulans anthranilate synthase, Fusarium oxysporum trypsin-like protease, and Aspergillus niger alpha-glucosidase.

Useful polyadenylation sequences for yeast host cells are described by Guo and Sherman, 1995, Mol. Cellular. Biol. 15: 5983-5990.

The control sequence may also be a signal peptide coding region that encodes a signal peptide linked to the N-terminus of a polypeptide and directs the polypeptide into the cell's secretory pathway. The 5′-end of the coding sequence of the polynucleotide may inherently contain a signal peptide coding sequence naturally linked in translation reading frame with the segment of the coding sequence that encodes the polypeptide. Alternatively, the 5′-end of the coding sequence may contain a signal peptide coding sequence that is foreign to the coding sequence. The foreign signal peptide coding sequence may be required where the coding sequence does not naturally contain a signal peptide coding sequence. Alternatively, the foreign signal peptide coding sequence may simply replace the natural signal peptide coding sequence in order to enhance secretion of the polypeptide. However, any signal peptide coding sequence that directs the expressed polypeptide into the secretory pathway of a host cell of choice may be used.

Effective signal peptide coding sequences for bacterial host cells are the signal peptide coding sequences obtained from the genes for Bacillus NCIB 11837 maltogenic amylase, Bacillus licheniformis subtilisin, Bacillus licheniformis beta-lactamase, Bacillus stearothermophilus alpha-amylase, Bacillus stearothermophilus neutral proteases (nprT, nprS, nprM), and Bacillus subtilis prsA. Further signal peptides are described by Simonen and Palva, 1993, Microbiological Reviews 57: 109-137.

Effective signal peptide coding sequences for filamentous fungal host cells are the signal peptide coding sequences obtained from the genes for Aspergillus niger neutral amylase, Aspergillus niger glucoamylase, Aspergillus oryzae TAKA amylase, Humicola insolens cellulase, Humicola insolens endoglucanase V, Humicola lanuginosa lipase, and Rhizomucor miehei aspartic proteinase.

Useful signal peptides for yeast host cells are obtained from the genes for Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-factor and Saccharomyces cerevisiae invertase. Other useful signal peptide coding sequences are described by Romanos et al., 1992, supra.

The control sequence may also be a propeptide coding sequence that encodes a propeptide positioned at the N-terminus of a polypeptide. The resultant polypeptide is known as a proenzyme or propolypeptide (or a zymogen in some cases). A propolypeptide is generally inactive and can be converted to an active polypeptide by catalytic or autocatalytic cleavage of the propeptide from the propolypeptide. The propeptide coding sequence may be obtained from the genes for Bacillus subtilis alkaline protease (aprE), Bacillus subtilis neutral protease (nprT), Myceliophthora thermophila laccase (WO 95/33836), Rhizomucor miehei aspartic proteinase, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-factor.

Where both signal peptide and propeptide sequences are present at the N-terminus of a polypeptide, the propeptide sequence is positioned next to the N-terminus of a polypeptide and the signal peptide sequence is positioned next to the N-terminus of the propeptide sequence.

It may also be desirable to add regulatory sequences that allow the regulation of the expression of the polypeptide relative to the growth of the host cell. Examples of regulatory systems are those that cause the expression of the gene to be turned on or off in response to a chemical or physical stimulus, including the presence of a regulatory compound. Regulatory systems in prokaryotic systems include the lac, tac, and trp operator systems. In yeast, the ADH2 system or GAL1 system may be used. In filamentous fungi, the Aspergillus niger glucoamylase promoter, Aspergillus oryzae TAKA alpha-amylase promoter, and Aspergillus oryzae glucoamylase promoter may be used. Other examples of regulatory sequences are those that allow for gene amplification. In eukaryotic systems, these regulatory sequences include the dihydrofolate reductase gene that is amplified in the presence of methotrexate, and the metallothionein genes that are amplified with heavy metals. In these cases, the polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide would be operably linked with the regulatory sequence.

Expression Vectors

The present invention also relates to recombinant expression vectors comprising a polynucleotide of the present invention, a promoter, and transcriptional and translational stop signals. The various nucleotide and control sequences may be joined together to produce a recombinant expression vector that may include one or more (several) convenient restriction sites to allow for insertion or substitution of the polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide at such sites. Alternatively, the polynucleotide may be expressed by inserting the polynucleotide or a nucleic acid construct comprising the sequence into an appropriate vector for expression. In creating the expression vector, the coding sequence is located in the vector so that the coding sequence is operably linked with the appropriate control sequences for expression.

The recombinant expression vector may be any vector (e.g., a plasmid or virus) that can be conveniently subjected to recombinant DNA procedures and can bring about expression of the polynucleotide. The choice of the vector will typically depend on the compatibility of the vector with the host cell into which the vector is to be introduced. The vector may be a linear or closed circular plasmid.

The vector may be an autonomously replicating vector, i.e., a vector that exists as an extrachromosomal entity, the replication of which is independent of chromosomal replication, e.g., a plasmid, an extrachromosomal element, a minichromosome, or an artificial chromosome. The vector may contain any means for assuring self-replication. Alternatively, the vector may be one that, when introduced into the host cell, is integrated into the genome and replicated together with the chromosome(s) into which it has been integrated. Furthermore, a single vector or plasmid or two or more vectors or plasmids that together contain the total DNA to be introduced into the genome of the host cell, or a transposon, may be used.

The vector preferably contains one or more (several) selectable markers that permit easy selection of transformed, transfected, transduced, or the like cells. A selectable marker is a gene the product of which provides for biocide or viral resistance, resistance to heavy metals, prototrophy to auxotrophs, and the like.

Examples of bacterial selectable markers are the dal genes from Bacillus subtilis or Bacillus licheniformis, or markers that confer antibiotic resistance such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, kanamycin, or tetracycline resistance. Suitable markers for yeast host cells are ADE2, HIS3, LEU2, LYS2, MET3, TRP1, and URA3. Selectable markers for use in a filamentous fungal host cell include, but are not limited to, amdS (acetamidase), argB (ornithine carbamoyltransferase), bar (phosphinothricin acetyltransferase), hph (hygromycin phosphotransferase), niaD (nitrate reductase), pyrG (orotidine-5′-phosphate decarboxylase), sC (sulfate adenyltransferase), and trpC (anthranilate synthase), as well as equivalents thereof. Preferred for use in an Aspergillus cell are the amdS and pyrG genes of Aspergillus nidulans or Aspergillus oryzae and the bar gene of Streptomyces hygroscopicus.

The vector preferably contains an element(s) that permits integration of the vector into the host cell's genome or autonomous replication of the vector in the cell independent of the genome.

For integration into the host cell genome, the vector may rely on the polynucleotide's sequence encoding the polypeptide or any other element of the vector for integration into the genome by homologous or non-homologous recombination. Alternatively, the vector may contain additional polynucleotides for directing integration by homologous recombination into the genome of the host cell at a precise location(s) in the chromosome(s). To increase the likelihood of integration at a precise location, the integrational elements should contain a sufficient number of nucleic acids, such as 100 to 10,000 base pairs, 400 to 10,000 base pairs, and 800 to 10,000 base pairs, which have a high degree of sequence identity to the corresponding target sequence to enhance the probability of homologous recombination. The integrational elements may be any sequence that is homologous with the target sequence in the genome of the host cell. Furthermore, the integrational elements may be non-encoding or encoding polynucleotides. On the other hand, the vector may be integrated into the genome of the host cell by non-homologous recombination.

For autonomous replication, the vector may further comprise an origin of replication enabling the vector to replicate autonomously in the host cell in question. The origin of replication may be any plasmid replicator mediating autonomous replication that functions in a cell. The term “origin of replication” or “plasmid replicator” means a polynucleotide that enables a plasmid or vector to replicate in vivo.

Examples of bacterial origins of replication are the origins of replication of plasmids pBR322, pUC19, pACYC177, and pACYC184 permitting replication in E. coli, and pUB110, pE194, pTA1060, and pAMβ1 permitting replication in Bacillus.

Examples of origins of replication for use in a yeast host cell are the 2 micron origin of replication, ARS1, ARS4, the combination of ARS1 and CEN3, and the combination of ARS4 and CEN6.

Examples of origins of replication useful in a filamentous fungal cell are AMA1 and ANSI (Gems et al., 1991, Gene 98: 61-67; Cullen et al., 1987, Nucleic Acids Res. 15: 9163-9175; WO 00/24883). Isolation of the AMA1 gene and construction of plasmids or vectors comprising the gene can be accomplished according to the methods disclosed in WO 00/24883.

More than one copy of a polynucleotide of the present invention may be inserted into a host cell to increase production of a polypeptide. An increase in the copy number of the polynucleotide can be obtained by integrating at least one additional copy of the sequence into the host cell genome or by including an amplifiable selectable marker gene with the polynucleotide where cells containing amplified copies of the selectable marker gene, and thereby additional copies of the polynucleotide, can be selected for by cultivating the cells in the presence of the appropriate selectable agent.

The procedures used to ligate the elements described above to construct the recombinant expression vectors of the present invention are well known to one skilled in the art (see, e.g., Sambrook et al., 1989, supra).

Host Cells

The present invention also relates to recombinant host cells, comprising a polynucleotide of the present invention operably linked to one or more (several) control sequences that direct the production of a polypeptide of the present invention. A construct or vector comprising a polynucleotide is introduced into a host cell so that the construct or vector is maintained as a chromosomal integrant or as a self-replicating extra-chromosomal vector as described earlier. The term “host cell” encompasses any progeny of a parent cell that is not identical to the parent cell due to mutations that occur during replication. The choice of a host cell will to a large extent depend upon the gene encoding the polypeptide and its source.

The host cell may be any cell useful in the recombinant production of a polypeptide of the present invention, e.g., a prokaryote or a eukaryote.

The prokaryotic host cell may be any gram-positive or gram-negative bacterium. Gram-positive bacteria include, but not limited to, Bacillus, Clostridium, Enterococcus, Geobacillus, Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Oceanobacillus, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and Streptomyces. Gram-negative bacteria include, but not limited to, Campylobacter, E. coli, Flavobacterium, Fusobacterium, Helicobacter, Ilyobacter, Neisseria, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, and Ureaplasma.

The bacterial host cell may be any Bacillus cell including, but not limited to, Bacillus alkalophilus, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus brevis, Bacillus circulans, Bacillus clausii, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus firmus, Bacillus lautus, Bacillus lentus, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus stearothermophilus, Bacillus subtilis, and Bacillus thuringiensis cells.

The bacterial host cell may also be any Streptococcus cell including, but not limited to, Streptococcus equisimilis, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus uberis, and Streptococcus equi subsp. Zooepidemicus cells.

The bacterial host cell may also be any Streptomyces cell including, but not limited to, Streptomyces achromogenes, Streptomyces avermitilis, Streptomyces coelicolor, Streptomyces griseus, and Streptomyces lividans cells.

The introduction of DNA into a Bacillus cell may, for instance, be effected by protoplast transformation (see, e.g., Chang and Cohen, 1979, Mol. Gen. Genet. 168: 111-115), by using competent cells (see, e.g., Young and Spizizen, 1961, J. Bacteriol. 81: 823-829, or Dubnau and Davidoff-Abelson, 1971, J. Mol. Biol. 56: 209-221), by electroporation (see, e.g., Shigekawa and Dower, 1988, Biotechniques 6: 742-751), or by conjugation (see, e.g., Koehler and Thorne, 1987, J. Bacteriol. 169: 5271-5278). The introduction of DNA into an E. coli cell may, for instance, be effected by protoplast transformation (see, e.g., Hanahan, 1983, J. Mol. Biol. 166: 557-580) or electroporation (see, e.g., Dower et al., 1988, Nucleic Acids Res. 16: 6127-6145). The introduction of DNA into a Streptomyces cell may, for instance, be effected by protoplast transformation and electroporation (see, e.g., Gong et al., 2004, Folia Microbiol. (Praha) 49: 399-405), by conjugation (see, e.g., Mazodier et al., 1989, J. Bacteriol. 171: 3583-3585), or by transduction (see, e.g., Burke et al., 2001, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98: 6289-6294). The introduction of DNA into a Pseudomonas cell may, for instance, be effected by electroporation (see, e.g., Choi et al., 2006, J. Microbiol. Methods 64: 391-397) or by conjugation (see, e.g., Pinedo and Smets, 2005, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71: 51-57). The introduction of DNA into a Streptococcus cell may, for instance, be effected by natural competence (see, e.g., Perry and Kuramitsu, 1981, Infect. Immun. 32: 1295-1297), by protoplast transformation (see, e.g., Catt and Jollick, 1991, Microbios 68: 189-207), by electroporation (see, e.g., Buckley et al., 1999, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65: 3800-3804) or by conjugation (see, e.g., Clewell, 1981, Microbiol. Rev. 45: 409-436). However, any method known in the art for introducing DNA into a host cell can be used.

The host cell may also be a eukaryote, such as a mammalian, insect, plant, or fungal cell.

The host cell may be a fungal cell. “Fungi” as used herein includes the phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota, and Zygomycota (as defined by Hawksworth et al., In, Ainsworth and Bisby's Dictionary of The Fungi, 8th edition, 1995, CAB International, University Press, Cambridge, UK) as well as the Oomycota (as cited in Hawksworth et al., 1995, supra, page 171) and all mitosporic fungi (Hawksworth et al., 1995, supra).

The fungal host cell may be a yeast cell. “Yeast” as used herein includes ascosporogenous yeast (Endomycetales), basidiosporogenous yeast, and yeast belonging to the Fungi Imperfecti (Blastomycetes). Since the classification of yeast may change in the future, for the purposes of this invention, yeast shall be defined as described in Biology and Activities of Yeast (Skinner, F. A., Passmore, S. M., and Davenport, R. R., eds, Soc. App. Bacteriol. Symposium Series No. 9, 1980).

The yeast host cell may be a Candida, Hansenula, Kluyveromyces, Pichia, Saccharomyces, Schizosaccharomyces, or Yarrowia cell such as a Kluyveromyces lactis, Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces diastaticus, Saccharomyces douglasii, Saccharomyces kluyveri, Saccharomyces norbensis, Saccharomyces oviformis, or Yarrowia lipolytica cell.

The fungal host cell may be a filamentous fungal cell. “Filamentous fungi” include all filamentous forms of the subdivision Eumycota and Oomycota (as defined by Hawksworth et al., 1995, supra). The filamentous fungi are generally characterized by a mycelial wall composed of chitin, cellulose, glucan, chitosan, mannan, and other complex polysaccharides. Vegetative growth is by hyphal elongation and carbon catabolism is obligately aerobic. In contrast, vegetative growth by yeasts such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae is by budding of a unicellular thallus and carbon catabolism may be fermentative.

The filamentous fungal host cell may be an Acremonium, Aspergillus, Aureobasidium, Bjerkandera, Ceriporiopsis, Chrysosporium, Coprinus, Coriolus, Cryptococcus, Filibasidium, Fusarium, Humicola, Magnaporthe, Mucor, Myceliophthora, Neocallimastix, Neurospora, Paecilomyces, Penicillium, Phanerochaete, Phlebia, Piromyces, Pleurotus, Schizophyllum, Talaromyces, Thermoascus, Thielavia, Tolypocladium, Trametes, or Trichoderma cell.

For example, the filamentous fungal host cell may be an Aspergillus awamori, Aspergillus foetidus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus japonicus, Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae, Bjerkandera adusta, Ceriporiopsis aneirina, Ceriporiopsis caregiea, Ceriporiopsis gilvescens, Ceriporiopsis pannocinta, Ceriporiopsis rivulosa, Ceriporiopsis subrufa, Ceriporiopsis subvermispora, Chrysosporium inops, Chrysosporium keratinophilum, Chrysosporium lucknowense, Chrysosporium merdarium, Chrysosporium pannicola, Chrysosporium queenslandicum, Chrysosporium tropicum, Chrysosporium zonatum, Coprinus cinereus, Coriolus hirsutus, Fusarium bactridioides, Fusarium cerealis, Fusarium crookwellense, Fusarium culmorum, Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium graminum, Fusarium heterosporum, Fusarium negundi, Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium reticulatum, Fusarium roseum, Fusarium sambucinum, Fusarium sarcochroum, Fusarium sporotrichioides, Fusarium sulphureum, Fusarium torulosum, Fusarium trichothecioides, Fusarium venenatum, Humicola insolens, Humicola lanuginosa, Mucor miehei, Myceliophthora thermophila, Neurospora crassa, Penicillium purpurogenum, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Phlebia radiata, Pleurotus eryngii, Thielavia terrestris, Trametes villosa, Trametes versicolor, Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma koningii, Trichoderma longibrachiatum, Trichoderma reesei, or Trichoderma viride cell.

Fungal cells may be transformed by a process involving protoplast formation, transformation of the protoplasts, and regeneration of the cell wall in a manner known per se. Suitable procedures for transformation of Aspergillus and Trichoderma host cells are described in EP 238023, Yelton et al., 1984, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 81: 1470-1474, and Christensen et al., 1988, Bio/Technology 6: 1419-1422. Suitable methods for transforming Fusarium species are described by Malardier et al., 1989, Gene 78: 147-156, and WO 96/00787. Yeast may be transformed using the procedures described by Becker and Guarente, In Abelson, J. N. and Simon, M. I., editors, Guide to Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology, Methods in Enzymology, Volume 194, pp 182-187, Academic Press, Inc., New York; Ito et al., 1983, J. Bacteriol. 153: 163; and Hinnen et al., 1978, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 75: 1920.

Methods of Production

The present invention also relates to methods of producing a polypeptide of the present invention, comprising: (a) cultivating a cell, which in its wild-type form produces the polypeptide, under conditions conducive for production of the polypeptide; and (b) recovering the polypeptide. In a preferred aspect, the cell is of the genus Penicillium. In a more preferred aspect, the cell is Penicillium pinophilum. In a most preferred aspect, the cell is Penicillium pinophilum NN46877.

The present invention also relates to methods of producing a polypeptide of the present invention, comprising: (a) cultivating a recombinant host cell of the present invention under conditions conducive for production of the polypeptide; and (b) recovering the polypeptide.

The host cells are cultivated in a nutrient medium suitable for production of the polypeptide using methods well known in the art. For example, the cell may be cultivated by shake flask cultivation, and small-scale or large-scale fermentation (including continuous, batch, fed-batch, or solid state fermentations) in laboratory or industrial fermentors performed in a suitable medium and under conditions allowing the polypeptide to be expressed and/or isolated. The cultivation takes place in a suitable nutrient medium comprising carbon and nitrogen sources and inorganic salts, using procedures known in the art. Suitable media are available from commercial suppliers or may be prepared according to published compositions (e.g., in catalogues of the American Type Culture Collection). If the polypeptide is secreted into the nutrient medium, the polypeptide can be recovered directly from the medium. If the polypeptide is not secreted, it can be recovered from cell lysates.

The polypeptide may be detected using methods known in the art that are specific for the polypeptides. These detection methods may include use of specific antibodies, formation of an enzyme product, or disappearance of an enzyme substrate. For example, an enzyme assay may be used to determine the activity of the polypeptide.

The polypeptide may be recovered using methods known in the art. For example, the polypeptide may be recovered from the nutrient medium by conventional procedures including, but not limited to, centrifugation, filtration, extraction, spray-drying, evaporation, or precipitation.

The polypeptide may be purified by a variety of procedures known in the art including, but not limited to, chromatography (e.g., ion exchange, affinity, hydrophobic, chromatofocusing, and size exclusion), electrophoretic procedures (e.g., preparative isoelectric focusing), differential solubility (e.g., ammonium sulfate precipitation), SDS-PAGE, or extraction (see, e.g., Protein Purification, J.-C. Janson and Lars Ryden, editors, VCH Publishers, New York, 1989) to obtain substantially pure polypeptides.

In an alternative aspect, the polypeptide is not recovered, but rather a host cell of the present invention expressing the polypeptide is used as a source of the polypeptide.

Plants

The present invention also relates to isolated plants, e.g., a transgenic plant, plant part, or plant cell, comprising an isolated polynucleotide of the present invention so as to express and produce the polypeptide in recoverable quantities. The polypeptide may be recovered from the plant or plant part. Alternatively, the plant or plant part containing the polypeptide may be used as such for improving the quality of a food or feed, e.g., improving nutritional value, palatability, and rheological properties, or to destroy an antinutritive factor.

The transgenic plant can be dicotyledonous (a dicot) or monocotyledonous (a monocot). Examples of monocot plants are grasses, such as meadow grass (blue grass, Poa), forage grass such as Festuca, Lolium, temperate grass, such as Agrostis, and cereals, e.g., wheat, oats, rye, barley, rice, sorghum, and maize (corn).

Examples of dicot plants are tobacco, legumes, such as lupins, potato, sugar beet, pea, bean and soybean, and cruciferous plants (family Brassicaceae), such as cauliflower, rape seed, and the closely related model organism Arabidopsis thaliana.

Examples of plant parts are stem, callus, leaves, root, fruits, seeds, and tubers as well as the individual tissues comprising these parts, e.g., epidermis, mesophyll, parenchyme, vascular tissues, meristems. Specific plant cell compartments, such as chloroplasts, apoplasts, mitochondria, vacuoles, peroxisomes and cytoplasm are also considered to be a plant part. Furthermore, any plant cell, whatever the tissue origin, is considered to be a plant part. Likewise, plant parts such as specific tissues and cells isolated to facilitate the utilization of the invention are also considered plant parts, e.g., embryos, endosperms, aleurone and seeds coats.

Also included within the scope of the present invention are the progeny of such plants, plant parts, and plant cells.

The transgenic plant or plant cell expressing a polypeptide may be constructed in accordance with methods known in the art. In short, the plant or plant cell is constructed by incorporating one or more (several) expression constructs encoding a polypeptide into the plant host genome or chloroplast genome and propagating the resulting modified plant or plant cell into a transgenic plant or plant cell.

The expression construct is conveniently a nucleic acid construct that comprises a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide operably linked with appropriate regulatory sequences required for expression of the polynucleotide in the plant or plant part of choice. Furthermore, the expression construct may comprise a selectable marker useful for identifying host cells into which the expression construct has been integrated and DNA sequences necessary for introduction of the construct into the plant in question (the latter depends on the DNA introduction method to be used).

The choice of regulatory sequences, such as promoter and terminator sequences and optionally signal or transit sequences, is determined, for example, on the basis of when, where, and how the polypeptide is desired to be expressed. For instance, the expression of the gene encoding a polypeptide may be constitutive or inducible, or may be developmental, stage or tissue specific, and the gene product may be targeted to a specific tissue or plant part such as seeds or leaves. Regulatory sequences are, for example, described by Tague et al., 1988, Plant Physiology 86: 506.

For constitutive expression, the 35S-CaMV, the maize ubiquitin 1, and the rice actin 1 promoter may be used (Franck et al., 1980, Cell 21: 285-294; Christensen et al., 1992, Plant Mol. Biol. 18: 675-689; Zhang et al., 1991, Plant Cell 3: 1155-1165). Organ-specific promoters may be, for example, a promoter from storage sink tissues such as seeds, potato tubers, and fruits (Edwards and Coruzzi, 1990, Ann. Rev. Genet. 24: 275-303), or from metabolic sink tissues such as meristems (Ito et al., 1994, Plant Mol. Biol. 24: 863-878), a seed specific promoter such as the glutelin, prolamin, globulin, or albumin promoter from rice (Wu et al., 1998, Plant Cell Physiol. 39: 885-889), a Vicia faba promoter from the legumin B4 and the unknown seed protein gene from Vicia faba (Conrad et al., 1998, J. Plant Physiol. 152: 708-711), a promoter from a seed oil body protein (Chen et al., 1998, Plant Cell Physiol. 39: 935-941), the storage protein napA promoter from Brassica napus, or any other seed specific promoter known in the art, e.g., as described in WO 91/14772. Furthermore, the promoter may be a leaf specific promoter such as the rbcs promoter from rice or tomato (Kyozuka et al., 1993, Plant Physiol. 102: 991-1000), the chlorella virus adenine methyltransferase gene promoter (Mitra and Higgins, 1994, Plant Mol. Biol. 26: 85-93), the aldP gene promoter from rice (Kagaya et al., 1995, Mol. Gen. Genet. 248: 668-674), or a wound inducible promoter such as the potato pin2 promoter (Xu et al., 1993, Plant Mol. Biol. 22: 573-588). Likewise, the promoter may inducible by abiotic treatments such as temperature, drought, or alterations in salinity or induced by exogenously applied substances that activate the promoter, e.g., ethanol, oestrogens, plant hormones such as ethylene, abscisic acid, and gibberellic acid, and heavy metals.

A promoter enhancer element may also be used to achieve higher expression of a polypeptide in the plant. For instance, the promoter enhancer element may be an intron that is placed between the promoter and the polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide. For instance, Xu et al., 1993, supra, disclose the use of the first intron of the rice actin 1 gene to enhance expression.

The selectable marker gene and any other parts of the expression construct may be chosen from those available in the art.

The nucleic acid construct is incorporated into the plant genome according to conventional techniques known in the art, including Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, virus-mediated transformation, microinjection, particle bombardment, biolistic transformation, and electroporation (Gasser et al., 1990, Science 244: 1293; Potrykus, 1990, Bio/Technology 8: 535; Shimamoto et al., 1989, Nature 338: 274).

Presently, Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated gene transfer is the method of choice for generating transgenic dicots (for a review, see Hooykas and Schilperoort, 1992, Plant Mol. Biol. 19: 15-38) and can also be used for transforming monocots, although other transformation methods are often used for these plants. Presently, the method of choice for generating transgenic monocots is particle bombardment (microscopic gold or tungsten particles coated with the transforming DNA) of embryonic calli or developing embryos (Christou, 1992, Plant J. 2: 275-281; Shimamoto, 1994, Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 5: 158-162; Vasil et al., 1992, Bio/Technology 10: 667-674). An alternative method for transformation of monocots is based on protoplast transformation as described by Omirulleh et al., 1993, Plant Mol. Biol. 21: 415-428. Additional transformation methods for use in accordance with the present disclosure include those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,395,966 and 7,151,204 (both of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety).

Following transformation, the transformants having incorporated the expression construct are selected and regenerated into whole plants according to methods well known in the art. Often the transformation procedure is designed for the selective elimination of selection genes either during regeneration or in the following generations by using, for example, co-transformation with two separate T-DNA constructs or site specific excision of the selection gene by a specific recombinase.

In addition to direct transformation of a particular plant genotype with a construct prepared according to the present invention, transgenic plants may be made by crossing a plant having the construct to a second plant lacking the construct. For example, a construct encoding a polypeptide can be introduced into a particular plant variety by crossing, without the need for ever directly transforming a plant of that given variety. Therefore, the present invention encompasses not only a plant directly regenerated from cells which have been transformed in accordance with the present invention, but also the progeny of such plants. As used herein, progeny may refer to the offspring of any generation of a parent plant prepared in accordance with the present invention. Such progeny may include a DNA construct prepared in accordance with the present invention, or a portion of a DNA construct prepared in accordance with the present invention. Crossing results in the introduction of a transgene into a plant line by cross pollinating a starting line with a donor plant line. Non-limiting examples of such steps are further articulated in U.S. Pat. No. 7,151,204.

Plants may be generated through a process of backcross conversion. For example, plants include plants referred to as a backcross converted genotype, line, inbred, or hybrid.

Genetic markers may be used to assist in the introgression of one or more transgenes of the invention from one genetic background into another. Marker assisted selection offers advantages relative to conventional breeding in that it can be used to avoid errors caused by phenotypic variations. Further, genetic markers may provide data regarding the relative degree of elite germplasm in the individual progeny of a particular cross. For example, when a plant with a desired trait which otherwise has a non-agronomically desirable genetic background is crossed to an elite parent, genetic markers may be used to select progeny which not only possess the trait of interest, but also have a relatively large proportion of the desired germplasm. In this way, the number of generations required to introgress one or more traits into a particular genetic background is minimized.

The present invention also relates to methods of producing a polypeptide of the present invention comprising: (a) cultivating a transgenic plant or a plant cell comprising a polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide under conditions conducive for production of the polypeptide; and (b) recovering the polypeptide.

Removal or Reduction of Cellulolytic Enhancing Activity

The present invention also relates to methods of producing a mutant of a parent cell, which comprises disrupting or deleting a polynucleotide, or a portion thereof, encoding a polypeptide of the present invention, which results in the mutant cell producing less of the polypeptide than the parent cell when cultivated under the same conditions.

The mutant cell may be constructed by reducing or eliminating expression of the polynucleotide using methods well known in the art, for example, insertions, disruptions, replacements, or deletions. In a preferred aspect, the polynucleotide is inactivated. The polynucleotide to be modified or inactivated may be, for example, the coding region or a part thereof essential for activity, or a regulatory element required for the expression of the coding region. An example of such a regulatory or control sequence may be a promoter sequence or a functional part thereof, i.e., a part that is sufficient for affecting expression of the polynucleotide. Other control sequences for possible modification include, but are not limited to, a leader, polyadenylation sequence, propeptide sequence, signal peptide sequence, transcription terminator, and transcriptional activator.

Modification or inactivation of the polynucleotide may be performed by subjecting the parent cell to mutagenesis and selecting for mutant cells in which expression of the polynucleotide has been reduced or eliminated. The mutagenesis, which may be specific or random, may be performed, for example, by use of a suitable physical or chemical mutagenizing agent, by use of a suitable oligonucleotide, or by subjecting the DNA sequence to PCR generated mutagenesis. Furthermore, the mutagenesis may be performed by use of any combination of these mutagenizing agents.

Examples of a physical or chemical mutagenizing agent suitable for the present purpose include ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, hydroxylamine, N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), O-methyl hydroxylamine, nitrous acid, ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS), sodium bisulphite, formic acid, and nucleotide analogues.

When such agents are used, the mutagenesis is typically performed by incubating the parent cell to be mutagenized in the presence of the mutagenizing agent of choice under suitable conditions, and screening and/or selecting for mutant cells exhibiting reduced or no expression of the gene.

Modification or inactivation of the polynucleotide may be accomplished by introduction, substitution, or removal of one or more (several) nucleotides in the gene or a regulatory element required for the transcription or translation thereof. For example, nucleotides may be inserted or removed so as to result in the introduction of a stop codon, the removal of the start codon, or a change in the open reading frame. Such modification or inactivation may be accomplished by site-directed mutagenesis or PCR generated mutagenesis in accordance with methods known in the art. Although, in principle, the modification may be performed in vivo, i.e., directly on the cell expressing the polynucleotide to be modified, it is preferred that the modification be performed in vitro as exemplified below.

An example of a convenient way to eliminate or reduce expression of a polynucleotide is based on techniques of gene replacement, gene deletion, or gene disruption. For example, in the gene disruption method, a nucleic acid sequence corresponding to the endogenous polynucleotide is mutagenized in vitro to produce a defective nucleic acid sequence that is then transformed into the parent cell to produce a defective gene. By homologous recombination, the defective nucleic acid sequence replaces the endogenous polynucleotide. It may be desirable that the defective polynucleotide also encodes a marker that may be used for selection of transformants in which the polynucleotide has been modified or destroyed. In a particularly preferred aspect, the polynucleotide is disrupted with a selectable marker such as those described herein.

The present invention also relates to methods of inhibiting the expression of a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity in a cell, comprising administering to the cell or expressing in the cell a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecule, wherein the dsRNA comprises a subsequence of a polynucleotide of the present invention. In a preferred aspect, the dsRNA is about 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 or more duplex nucleotides in length.

The dsRNA is preferably a small interfering RNA (siRNA) or a micro RNA (miRNA). In a preferred aspect, the dsRNA is small interfering RNA (siRNAs) for inhibiting transcription. In another preferred aspect, the dsRNA is micro RNA (miRNAs) for inhibiting translation.

The present invention also relates to such double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules, comprising a portion of the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 for inhibiting expression of the polypeptide in a cell. While the present invention is not limited by any particular mechanism of action, the dsRNA can enter a cell and cause the degradation of a single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) of similar or identical sequences, including endogenous mRNAs. When a cell is exposed to dsRNA, mRNA from the homologous gene is selectively degraded by a process called RNA interference (RNAi).

The dsRNAs of the present invention can be used in gene-silencing. In one aspect, the invention provides methods to selectively degrade RNA using a dsRNAi of the present invention. The process may be practiced in vitro, ex vivo or in vivo. In one aspect, the dsRNA molecules can be used to generate a loss-of-function mutation in a cell, an organ or an animal. Methods for making and using dsRNA molecules to selectively degrade RNA are well known in the art; see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,489,127; 6,506,559; 6,511,824; and 6,515,109.

The present invention further relates to a mutant cell of a parent cell that comprises a disruption or deletion of a polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide or a control sequence thereof or a silenced gene encoding the polypeptide, which results in the mutant cell producing less of the polypeptide or no polypeptide compared to the parent cell.

The polypeptide-deficient mutant cells are particularly useful as host cells for the expression of native and heterologous polypeptides. Therefore, the present invention further relates to methods of producing a native or heterologous polypeptide, comprising: (a) cultivating the mutant cell under conditions conducive for production of the polypeptide; and (b) recovering the polypeptide. The term “heterologous polypeptides” means polypeptides that are not native to the host cell, e.g., a variant of a native protein. The host cell may comprise more than one copy of a polynucleotide encoding the native or heterologous polypeptide.

The methods used for cultivation and purification of the product of interest may be performed by methods known in the art.

The methods of the present invention for producing an essentially cellulolytic enhancing-free product is of particular interest in the production of eukaryotic polypeptides, in particular fungal proteins such as enzymes. The cellulolytic enhancing-deficient cells may also be used to express heterologous proteins of pharmaceutical interest such as hormones, growth factors, receptors, and the like. The term “eukaryotic polypeptides” includes not only native polypeptides, but also those polypeptides, e.g., enzymes, which have been modified by amino acid substitutions, deletions or additions, or other such modifications to enhance activity, thermostability, pH tolerance and the like.

In a further aspect, the present invention relates to a protein product essentially free from cellulolytic enhancing activity that is produced by a method of the present invention.

Compositions

The present invention also relates to compositions comprising a polypeptide of the present invention. Preferably, the compositions are enriched in such a polypeptide. The term “enriched” indicates that the cellulolytic enhancing activity of the composition has been increased, e.g., with an enrichment factor of at least 1.1.

The composition may comprise a polypeptide of the present invention as the major enzymatic component, e.g., a mono-component composition. Alternatively, the composition may also comprise one or more (several) additional enzymes, such as an acetylxylan esterase, amylase, alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase, catalase, cellobiohydrolase, cellulase, alpha-galactosidase, beta-galactosidase, endoglucanase, alpha-glucuronidase, esterase, feruloyl esterase, glucoamylase, alpha-glucosidase, beta-glucosidase, laccase, lipase, mannosidase, peroxidase, polyphenoloxidase, xylanase, or beta-xylosidase.

The polypeptide compositions may be prepared in accordance with methods known in the art and may be in the form of a liquid or a dry composition. For instance, the polypeptide composition may be in the form of a granulate or a microgranulate. The polypeptide to be included in the composition may be stabilized in accordance with methods known in the art.

Examples are given below of preferred uses of the polypeptide compositions of the invention. The dosage of the polypeptide composition of the invention and other conditions under which the composition is used may be determined on the basis of methods known in the art.

Uses

The present invention is also directed to the following methods for using the polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity, or compositions thereof.

The present invention also relates to methods for degrading or converting a cellulosic material, comprising: treating the cellulosic material with an enzyme composition in the presence of a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of the present invention. In a preferred aspect, the method further comprises recovering the degraded or converted cellulosic material.

The present invention also relates to methods of producing a fermentation product, comprising: (a) saccharifying a cellulosic material with an enzyme composition in the presence of a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of the present invention; (b) fermenting the saccharified cellulosic material with one or more (several) fermenting microorganisms to produce the fermentation product; and (c) recovering the fermentation product from the fermentation.

The present invention also relates to methods of fermenting a cellulosic material, comprising: fermenting the cellulosic material with one or more (several) fermenting microorganisms, wherein the cellulosic material is saccharified with an enzyme composition in the presence of a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of the present invention. In a preferred aspect, the fermenting of the cellulosic material produces a fermentation product. In another preferred aspect, the method further comprises recovering the fermentation product from the fermentation.

The methods of the present invention can be used to saccharify a cellulosic material to fermentable sugars and convert the fermentable sugars to many useful substances, e.g., fuel, potable ethanol, and/or fermentation products (e.g., acids, alcohols, ketones, gases, and the like). The production of a desired fermentation product from cellulosic material typically involves pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis (saccharification), and fermentation.

The processing of cellulosic material according to the present invention can be accomplished using processes conventional in the art. Moreover, the methods of the present invention can be implemented using any conventional biomass processing apparatus configured to operate in accordance with the invention.

Hydrolysis (saccharification) and fermentation, separate or simultaneous, include, but are not limited to, separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF); simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF); simultaneous saccharification and cofermentation (SSCF); hybrid hydrolysis and fermentation (HHF); separate hydrolysis and co-fermentation (SHCF); hybrid hydrolysis and co-fermentation (HHCF); and direct microbial conversion (DMC). SHF uses separate process steps to first enzymatically hydrolyze cellulosic material to fermentable sugars, e.g., glucose, cellobiose, cellotriose, and pentose sugars, and then ferment the fermentable sugars to ethanol. In SSF, the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulosic material and the fermentation of sugars to ethanol are combined in one step (Philippidis, G. P., 1996, Cellulose bioconversion technology, in Handbook on Bioethanol: Production and Utilization, Wyman, C. E., ed., Taylor & Francis, Washington, D.C., 179-212). SSCF involves the cofermentation of multiple sugars (Sheehan, J., and Himmel, M., 1999, Enzymes, energy and the environment: A strategic perspective on the U.S. Department of Energy's research and development activities for bioethanol, Biotechnol. Prog. 15: 817-827). HHF involves a separate hydrolysis step, and in addition a simultaneous saccharification and hydrolysis step, which can be carried out in the same reactor. The steps in an HHF process can be carried out at different temperatures, i.e., high temperature enzymatic saccharification followed by SSF at a lower temperature that the fermentation strain can tolerate. DMC combines all three processes (enzyme production, hydrolysis, and fermentation) in one or more (several) steps where the same organism is used to produce the enzymes for conversion of the cellulosic material to fermentable sugars and to convert the fermentable sugars into a final product (Lynd, L. R., Weimer, P. J., van Zyl, W. H., and Pretorius, I. S., 2002, Microbial cellulose utilization: Fundamentals and biotechnology, Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Reviews 66: 506-577). It is understood herein that any method known in the art comprising pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis (saccharification), fermentation, or a combination thereof, can be used in the practicing the methods of the present invention.

A conventional apparatus can include a fed-batch stirred reactor, a batch stirred reactor, a continuous flow stirred reactor with ultrafiltration, and/or a continuous plug-flow column reactor (Fernanda de Castilhos Corazza, Flávio Faria de Moraes, Gisella Maria Zanin and Ivo Neitzel, 2003, Optimal control in fed-batch reactor for the cellobiose hydrolysis, Acta Scientiarum. Technology 25: 33-38; Gusakov, A. V., and Sinitsyn, A. P., 1985, Kinetics of the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose: 1. A mathematical model for a batch reactor process, Enz. Microb. Technol. 7: 346-352), an attrition reactor (Ryu, S. K., and Lee, J. M., 1983, Bioconversion of waste cellulose by using an attrition bioreactor, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 25: 53-65), or a reactor with intensive stirring induced by an electromagnetic field (Gusakov, A. V., Sinitsyn, A. P., Davydkin, I. Y., Davydkin, V. Y., Protas, O. V., 1996, Enhancement of enzymatic cellulose hydrolysis using a novel type of bioreactor with intensive stirring induced by electromagnetic field, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 56: 141-153). Additional reactor types include: fluidized bed, upflow blanket, immobilized, and extruder type reactors for hydrolysis and/or fermentation.

Pretreatment. In practicing the methods of the present invention, any pretreatment process known in the art can be used to disrupt plant cell wall components of cellulosic material (Chandra et al., 2007, Substrate pretreatment: The key to effective enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosics? Adv. Biochem. Engin./Biotechnol. 108: 67-93; Galbe and Zacchi, 2007, Pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials for efficient bioethanol production, Adv. Biochem. Engin./Biotechnol. 108: 41-65; Hendriks and Zeeman, 2009, Pretreatments to enhance the digestibility of lignocellulosic biomass, Bioresource Technol. 100: 10-18; Mosier et al., 2005, Features of promising technologies for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, Bioresource Technol. 96: 673-686; Taherzadeh and Karimi, 2008, Pretreatment of lignocellulosic wastes to improve ethanol and biogas production: A review, Int. J. of Mol. Sci. 9: 1621-1651; Yang and Wyman, 2008, Pretreatment: the key to unlocking low-cost cellulosic ethanol, Biofuels Bioproducts and Biorefining-Biofpr. 2: 26-40).

The cellulosic material can also be subjected to particle size reduction, pre-soaking, wetting, washing, or conditioning prior to pretreatment using methods known in the art.

Conventional pretreatments include, but are not limited to, steam pretreatment (with or without explosion), dilute acid pretreatment, hot water pretreatment, alkaline pretreatment, lime pretreatment, wet oxidation, wet explosion, ammonia fiber explosion, organosolv pretreatment, and biological pretreatment. Additional pretreatments include ammonia percolation, ultrasound, electroporation, microwave, supercritical CO₂, supercritical H₂O, ozone, and gamma irradiation pretreatments.

The cellulosic material can be pretreated before hydrolysis and/or fermentation. Pretreatment is preferably performed prior to the hydrolysis. Alternatively, the pretreatment can be carried out simultaneously with enzyme hydrolysis to release fermentable sugars, such as glucose, xylose, and/or cellobiose. In most cases the pretreatment step itself results in some conversion of biomass to fermentable sugars (even in absence of enzymes).

Steam Pretreatment: In steam pretreatment, cellulosic material is heated to disrupt the plant cell wall components, including lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose to make the cellulose and other fractions, e.g., hemicellulose, accessible to enzymes. Cellulosic material is passed to or through a reaction vessel where steam is injected to increase the temperature to the required temperature and pressure and is retained therein for the desired reaction time. Steam pretreatment is preferably done at 140-230° C., more preferably 160-200° C., and most preferably 170-190° C., where the optimal temperature range depends on any addition of a chemical catalyst. Residence time for the steam pretreatment is preferably 1-15 minutes, more preferably 3-12 minutes, and most preferably 4-10 minutes, where the optimal residence time depends on temperature range and any addition of a chemical catalyst. Steam pretreatment allows for relatively high solids loadings, so that cellulosic material is generally only moist during the pretreatment. The steam pretreatment is often combined with an explosive discharge of the material after the pretreatment, which is known as steam explosion, that is, rapid flashing to atmospheric pressure and turbulent flow of the material to increase the accessible surface area by fragmentation (Duff and Murray, 1996, Bioresource Technology 855: 1-33; Galbe and Zacchi, 2002, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 59: 618-628; U.S. Patent Application No. 20020164730). During steam pretreatment, hemicellulose acetyl groups are cleaved and the resulting acid autocatalyzes partial hydrolysis of the hemicellulose to monosaccharides and oligosaccharides. Lignin is removed to only a limited extent.

A catalyst such as H₂SO₄ or SO₂ (typically 0.3 to 3% w/w) is often added prior to steam pretreatment, which decreases the time and temperature, increases the recovery, and improves enzymatic hydrolysis (Ballesteros et al., 2006, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 129-132: 496-508; Varga et al., 2004, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 113-116: 509-523; Sassner et al., 2006, Enzyme Microb. Technol. 39: 756-762).

Chemical Pretreatment: The term “chemical treatment” refers to any chemical pretreatment that promotes the separation and/or release of cellulose, hemicellulose, and/or lignin. Examples of suitable chemical pretreatment processes include, for example, dilute acid pretreatment, lime pretreatment, wet oxidation, ammonia fiber/freeze explosion (AFEX), ammonia percolation (APR), and organosolv pretreatments.

In dilute acid pretreatment, cellulosic material is mixed with dilute acid, typically H₂SO₄, and water to form a slurry, heated by steam to the desired temperature, and after a residence time flashed to atmospheric pressure. The dilute acid pretreatment can be performed with a number of reactor designs, e.g., plug-flow reactors, counter-current reactors, or continuous counter-current shrinking bed reactors (Duff and Murray, 1996, supra; Schell et al., 2004, Bioresource Technol. 91: 179-188; Lee et al., 1999, Adv. Biochem. Eng. Biotechnol. 65: 93-115).

Several methods of pretreatment under alkaline conditions can also be used. These alkaline pretreatments include, but are not limited to, lime pretreatment, wet oxidation, ammonia percolation (APR), and ammonia fiber/freeze explosion (AFEX).

Lime pretreatment is performed with calcium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, or ammonia at low temperatures of 85-150° C. and residence times from 1 hour to several days (Wyman et al., 2005, Bioresource Technol. 96: 1959-1966; Mosier et al., 2005, Bioresource Technol. 96: 673-686). WO 2006/110891, WO 2006/11899, WO 2006/11900, and WO 2006/110901 disclose pretreatment methods using ammonia.

Wet oxidation is a thermal pretreatment performed typically at 180-200° C. for 5-15 minutes with addition of an oxidative agent such as hydrogen peroxide or over-pressure of oxygen (Schmidt and Thomsen, 1998, Bioresource Technol. 64: 139-151; Palonen et al., 2004, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 117: 1-17; Varga et al., 2004, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 88: 567-574; Martin et al., 2006, J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol. 81: 1669-1677). The pretreatment is performed at preferably 1-40% dry matter, more preferably 2-30% dry matter, and most preferably 5-20% dry matter, and often the initial pH is increased by the addition of alkali such as sodium carbonate.

A modification of the wet oxidation pretreatment method, known as wet explosion (combination of wet oxidation and steam explosion), can handle dry matter up to 30%. In wet explosion, the oxidizing agent is introduced during pretreatment after a certain residence time. The pretreatment is then ended by flashing to atmospheric pressure (WO 2006/032282).

Ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX) involves treating cellulosic material with liquid or gaseous ammonia at moderate temperatures such as 90-100° C. and high pressure such as 17-20 bar for 5-10 minutes, where the dry matter content can be as high as 60% (Gollapalli et al., 2002, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 98: 23-35; Chundawat et al., 2007, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 96: 219-231; Alizadeh et al., 2005, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 121: 1133-1141; Teymouri et al., 2005, Bioresource Technol. 96: 2014-2018). AFEX pretreatment results in the depolymerization of cellulose and partial hydrolysis of hemicellulose. Lignin-carbohydrate complexes are cleaved.

Organosolv pretreatment delignifies cellulosic material by extraction using aqueous ethanol

(40-60% ethanol) at 160-200° C. for 30-60 minutes (Pan et al., 2005, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 90: 473-481; Pan et al., 2006, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 94: 851-861; Kurabi et al., 2005, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 121: 219-230). Sulphuric acid is usually added as a catalyst. In organosolv pretreatment, the majority of hemicellulose is removed.

Other examples of suitable pretreatment methods are described by Schell et al., 2003, Appl. Biochem. and Biotechnol. Vol. 105-108, p. 69-85, and Mosier et al., 2005, Bioresource Technology 96: 673-686, and U.S. Published Application 2002/0164730.

In one aspect, the chemical pretreatment is preferably carried out as an acid treatment, and more preferably as a continuous dilute and/or mild acid treatment. The acid is typically sulfuric acid, but other acids can also be used, such as acetic acid, citric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, tartaric acid, succinic acid, hydrogen chloride, or mixtures thereof. Mild acid treatment is conducted in the pH range of preferably 1-5, more preferably 1-4, and most preferably 1-3. In one aspect, the acid concentration is in the range from preferably 0.01 to 20 wt % acid, more preferably 0.05 to 10 wt % acid, even more preferably 0.1 to 5 wt % acid, and most preferably 0.2 to 2.0 wt % acid. The acid is contacted with cellulosic material and held at a temperature in the range of preferably 160-220° C., and more preferably 165-195° C., for periods ranging from seconds to minutes to, e.g., 1 second to 60 minutes.

In another aspect, pretreatment is carried out as an ammonia fiber explosion step (AFEX pretreatment step).

In another aspect, pretreatment takes place in an aqueous slurry. In preferred aspects, cellulosic material is present during pretreatment in amounts preferably between 10-80 wt %, more preferably between 20-70 wt %, and most preferably between 30-60 wt %, such as around 50 wt %. The pretreated cellulosic material can be unwashed or washed using any method known in the art, e.g., washed with water.

Mechanical Pretreatment: The term “mechanical pretreatment” refers to various types of grinding or milling (e.g., dry milling, wet milling, or vibratory ball milling).

Physical Pretreatment: The term “physical pretreatment” refers to any pretreatment that promotes the separation and/or release of cellulose, hemicellulose, and/or lignin from cellulosic material. For example, physical pretreatment can involve irradiation (e.g., microwave irradiation), steaming/steam explosion, hydrothermolysis, and combinations thereof.

Physical pretreatment can involve high pressure and/or high temperature (steam explosion). In one aspect, high pressure means pressure in the range of preferably about 300 to about 600 psi, more preferably about 350 to about 550 psi, and most preferably about 400 to about 500 psi, such as around 450 psi. In another aspect, high temperature means temperatures in the range of about 100 to about 300° C., preferably about 140 to about 235° C. In a preferred aspect, mechanical pretreatment is performed in a batch-process, steam gun hydrolyzer system that uses high pressure and high temperature as defined above, e.g., a Sunds Hydrolyzer available from Sunds Defibrator AB, Sweden.

Combined Physical and Chemical Pretreatment: Cellulosic material can be pretreated both physically and chemically. For instance, the pretreatment step can involve dilute or mild acid treatment and high temperature and/or pressure treatment. The physical and chemical pretreatments can be carried out sequentially or simultaneously, as desired. A mechanical pretreatment can also be included.

Accordingly, in a preferred aspect, cellulosic material is subjected to mechanical, chemical, or physical pretreatment, or any combination thereof, to promote the separation and/or release of cellulose, hemicellulose, and/or lignin.

Biological Pretreatment: The term “biological pretreatment” refers to any biological pretreatment that promotes the separation and/or release of cellulose, hemicellulose, and/or lignin from cellulosic material. Biological pretreatment techniques can involve applying lignin-solubilizing microorganisms (see, for example, Hsu, T.-A., 1996, Pretreatment of biomass, in Handbook on Bioethanol: Production and Utilization, Wyman, C. E., ed., Taylor & Francis, Washington, D.C., 179-212; Ghosh and Singh, 1993, Physicochemical and biological treatments for enzymatic/microbial conversion of cellulosic biomass, Adv. Appl. Microbiol. 39: 295-333; McMillan, J. D., 1994, Pretreating lignocellulosic biomass: a review, in Enzymatic Conversion of Biomass for Fuels Production, Himmel, M. E., Baker, J. O., and Overend, R. P., eds., ACS Symposium Series 566, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., chapter 15; Gong, C. S., Cao, N. J., Du, J., and Tsao, G. T., 1999, Ethanol production from renewable resources, in Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, Scheper, T., ed., Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Germany, 65: 207-241; Olsson and Hahn-Hagerdal, 1996, Fermentation of lignocellulosic hydrolysates for ethanol production, Enz. Microb. Tech. 18: 312-331; and Vallander and Eriksson, 1990, Production of ethanol from lignocellulosic materials: State of the art, Adv. Biochem. Eng./Biotechnol. 42: 63-95).

Saccharification. In the hydrolysis step, also known as saccharification, the cellulosic material, e.g., pretreated, is hydrolyzed to break down cellulose and alternatively also hemicellulose to fermentable sugars, such as glucose, cellobiose, xylose, xylulose, arabinose, mannose, galactose, and/or soluble oligosaccharides. The hydrolysis is performed enzymatically by an enzyme composition in the presence of a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of the present invention. The enzymes of the compositions can also be added sequentially.

Enzymatic hydrolysis is preferably carried out in a suitable aqueous environment under conditions that can be readily determined by one skilled in the art. In a preferred aspect, hydrolysis is performed under conditions suitable for the activity of the enzyme(s), i.e., optimal for the enzyme(s). The hydrolysis can be carried out as a fed batch or continuous process where the pretreated cellulosic material (substrate) is fed gradually to, for example, an enzyme containing hydrolysis solution.

The saccharification is generally performed in stirred-tank reactors or fermentors under controlled pH, temperature, and mixing conditions. Suitable process time, temperature and pH conditions can readily be determined by one skilled in the art. For example, the saccharification can last up to 200 hours, but is typically performed for preferably about 12 to about 96 hours, more preferably about 16 to about 72 hours, and most preferably about 24 to about 48 hours. The temperature is in the range of preferably about 25° C. to about 70° C., more preferably about 30° C. to about 65° C., and more preferably about 40° C. to 60° C., in particular about 50° C. The pH is in the range of preferably about 3 to about 8, more preferably about 3.5 to about 7, and most preferably about 4 to about 6, in particular about pH 5. The dry solids content is in the range of preferably about 5 to about 50 wt %, more preferably about 10 to about 40 wt %, and most preferably about 20 to about 30 wt %.

In one aspect, the enzyme composition comprises or further comprises one or more (several) proteins selected from the group consisting of a cellulase, a hemicellulase, an expansin, an esterase, a ligninolytic enzyme, a pectinase, a peroxidase, a protease, and a swollenin. In another aspect, the cellulase is preferably one or more (several) enzymes selected from the group consisting of an endoglucanase, a cellobiohydrolase, and a beta-glucosidase. In another aspect, the hemicellulase is preferably one or more (several) enzymes selected from the group consisting of an acetylmannan esterase, an acetyxylan esterase, an arabinanase, an arabinofuranosidase, a coumaric acid esterase, a feruloyl esterase, a galactosidase, a glucuronidase, a glucuronoyl esterase, a mannanase, a mannosidase, a xylanase, and a xylosidase.

In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises one or more (several) cellulolytic enzymes. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises or further comprises one or more (several) hemicellulolytic enzymes. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises one or more (several) cellulolytic enzymes and one or more (several) hemicellulolytic enzymes. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises one or more (several) enzymes selected from the group of cellulolytic enzymes and hemicellulolytic enzymes. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises an endoglucanase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a cellobiohydrolase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a beta-glucosidase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises an acetylmannan esterase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises an acetyxylan esterase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises an arabinanase (e.g., alpha-L-arabinanase). In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises an arabinofuranosidase (e.g., alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase). In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a coumaric acid esterase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a feruloyl esterase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a galactosidase (e.g., alpha-galactosidase and/or beta-galactosidase). In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a glucuronidase (e.g., alpha-D-glucuronidase). In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a glucuronoyl esterase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a mannanase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a mannosidase (e.g., beta-mannosidase). In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a xylanase. In a preferred aspect, the xylanase is a Family 10 xylanase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a xylosidase.

In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises an expansin. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises an esterase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a ligninolytic enzyme. In a preferred aspect, the ligninolytic enzyme is a laccase. In another preferred aspect, the ligninolytic enzyme is a manganese peroxidase. In another preferred aspect, the ligninolytic enzyme is a lignin peroxidase. In another preferred aspect, the ligninolytic enzyme is a H₂O₂-producing enzyme. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a pectinase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a peroxidase. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a protease. In another aspect, the enzyme composition comprises a swollenin.

In the methods of the present invention, the enzyme(s) can be added prior to or during fermentation, e.g., during saccharification or during or after propagation of the fermenting microorganism(s).

One or more (several) components of the enzyme composition may be wild-type proteins, recombinant proteins, or a combination of wild-type proteins and recombinant proteins. For example, one or more (several) components may be native proteins of a cell, which is used as a host cell to express recombinantly one or more (several) other components of the enzyme composition. One or more (several) components of the enzyme composition may be produced as monocomponents, which are then combined to form the enzyme composition. The enzyme composition may be a combination of multicomponent and monocomponent protein preparations.

The enzymes used in the methods of the present invention may be in any form suitable for use in the processes described herein, such as, for example, a crude fermentation broth with or without cells removed, a cell lysate with or without cellular debris, a semi-purified or purified enzyme preparation, or a host cell as a source of the enzymes. The enzyme composition may be a dry powder or granulate, a non-dusting granulate, a liquid, a stabilized liquid, or a stabilized protected enzyme. Liquid enzyme preparations may, for instance, be stabilized by adding stabilizers such as a sugar, a sugar alcohol or another polyol, and/or lactic acid or another organic acid according to established processes.

The optimum amounts of the enzymes and polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity depend on several factors including, but not limited to, the mixture of component cellulolytic enzymes, the cellulosic substrate, the concentration of cellulosic substrate, the pretreatment(s) of the cellulosic substrate, temperature, time, pH, and inclusion of fermenting organism (e.g., yeast for Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation).

In a preferred aspect, an effective amount of cellulolytic enzyme(s) to cellulosic material is about 0.5 to about 50 mg, preferably about 0.5 to about 40 mg, more preferably about 0.5 to about 25 mg, more preferably about 0.75 to about 20 mg, more preferably about 0.75 to about mg, even more preferably about 0.5 to about 10 mg, and most preferably about 2.5 to about 10 mg per g of cellulosic material.

In another preferred aspect, an effective amount of polypeptide(s) having cellulolytic enhancing activity to cellulosic material is about 0.01 to about 50.0 mg, preferably about 0.01 to about 40 mg, more preferably about 0.01 to about 30 mg, more preferably about 0.01 to about mg, more preferably about 0.01 to about 10 mg, more preferably about 0.01 to about 5 mg, more preferably about 0.025 to about 1.5 mg, more preferably about 0.05 to about 1.25 mg, more preferably about 0.075 to about 1.25 mg, more preferably about 0.1 to about 1.25 mg, even more preferably about 0.15 to about 1.25 mg, and most preferably about 0.25 to about 1.0 mg per g of cellulosic material.

In another preferred aspect, an effective amount of polypeptide(s) having cellulolytic enhancing activity to cellulolytic enzyme(s) is about 0.005 to about 1.0 g, preferably about 0.01 to about 1.0 g, more preferably about 0.15 to about 0.75 g, more preferably about 0.15 to about 0.5 g, more preferably about 0.1 to about 0.5 g, even more preferably about 0.1 to about 0.25 g, and most preferably about 0.05 to about 0.2 g per g of cellulolytic enzyme(s).

The enzymes can be derived or obtained from any suitable origin, including, bacterial, fungal, yeast, plant, or mammalian origin. The term “obtained” means herein that the enzyme may have been isolated from an organism that naturally produces the enzyme as a native enzyme. The term “obtained” also means herein that the enzyme may have been produced recombinantly in a host organism employing methods described herein, wherein the recombinantly produced enzyme is either native or foreign to the host organism or has a modified amino acid sequence, e.g., having one or more (several) amino acids that are deleted, inserted and/or substituted, i.e., a recombinantly produced enzyme that is a mutant and/or a fragment of a native amino acid sequence or an enzyme produced by nucleic acid shuffling processes known in the art. Encompassed within the meaning of a native enzyme are natural variants and within the meaning of a foreign enzyme are variants obtained recombinantly, such as by site-directed mutagenesis or shuffling.

A polypeptide having enzyme activity may be a bacterial polypeptide. For example, the polypeptide may be a gram positive bacterial polypeptide such as a Bacillus, Streptococcus, Streptomyces, Staphylococcus, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Clostridium, Geobacillus, or Oceanobacillus polypeptide having enzyme activity, or a Gram negative bacterial polypeptide such as an E. coli, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Helicobacter, Flavobacterium, Fusobacterium, Ilyobacter, Neisseria, or Ureaplasma polypeptide having enzyme activity.

In a preferred aspect, the polypeptide is a Bacillus alkalophilus, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus brevis, Bacillus circulans, Bacillus clausii, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus firmus, Bacillus lautus, Bacillus lentus, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus stearothermophilus, Bacillus subtilis, or Bacillus thuringiensis polypeptide having enzyme activity.

In another preferred aspect, the polypeptide is a Streptococcus equisimilis, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus uberis, or Streptococcus equi subsp. Zooepidemicus polypeptide having enzyme activity.

In another preferred aspect, the polypeptide is a Streptomyces achromogenes, Streptomyces avermitilis, Streptomyces coelicolor, Streptomyces griseus, or Streptomyces lividans polypeptide having enzyme activity.

The polypeptide having enzyme activity may also be a fungal polypeptide, and more preferably a yeast polypeptide such as a Candida, Kluyveromyces, Pichia, Saccharomyces, Schizosaccharomyces, or Yarrowia polypeptide having enzyme activity; or more preferably a filamentous fungal polypeptide such as an Acremonium, Agaricus, Alternaria, Aspergillus, Aureobasidium, Botryospaeria, Ceriporiopsis, Chaetomidium, Chrysosporium, Claviceps, Cochliobolus, Coprinopsis, Coptotermes, Corynascus, Cryphonectria, Cryptococcus, Diplodia, Exidia, Filibasidium, Fusarium, Gibberella, Holomastigotoides, Humicola, Irpex, Lentinula, Leptospaeria, Magnaporthe, Melanocarpus, Meripilus, Mucor, Myceliophthora, Neocallimastix, Neurospora, Paecilomyces, Penicillium, Phanerochaete, Piromyces, Poitrasia, Pseudoplectania, Pseudotrichonympha, Rhizomucor, Schizophyllum, Scytalidium, Talaromyces, Thermoascus, Thielavia, Tolypocladium, Trichoderma, Trichophaea, Verticillium, Volvariella, or Xylaria polypeptide having enzyme activity.

In a preferred aspect, the polypeptide is a Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces diastaticus, Saccharomyces douglasii, Saccharomyces kluyveri, Saccharomyces norbensis, or Saccharomyces oviformis polypeptide having enzyme activity.

In another preferred aspect, the polypeptide is an Acremonium cellulolyticus, Aspergillus aculeatus, Aspergillus awamori, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus foetidus, Aspergillus japonicus, Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae, Chrysosporium keratinophilum, Chrysosporium lucknowense, Chrysosporium tropicum, Chrysosporium merdarium, Chrysosporium inops, Chrysosporium pannicola, Chrysosporium queenslandicum, Chrysosporium zonatum, Fusarium bactridioides, Fusarium cerealis, Fusarium crookwellense, Fusarium culmorum, Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium graminum, Fusarium heterosporum, Fusarium negundi, Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium reticulatum, Fusarium roseum, Fusarium sambucinum, Fusarium sarcochroum, Fusarium sporotrichioides, Fusarium sulphureum, Fusarium torulosum, Fusarium trichothecioides, Fusarium venenatum, Humicola grisea, Humicola insolens, Humicola lanuginosa, Irpex lacteus, Mucor miehei, Myceliophthora thermophila, Neurospora crassa, Penicillium funiculosum, Penicillium purpurogenum, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Thielavia achromatica, Thielavia albomyces, Thielavia albopilosa, Thielavia australeinsis, Thielavia fimeti, Thielavia microspora, Thielavia ovispora, Thielavia peruviana, Thielavia spededonium, Thielavia setosa, Thielavia subthermophila, Thielavia terrestris, Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma koningii, Trichoderma longibrachiatum, Trichoderma reesei, Trichoderma viride, or Trichophaea saccata polypeptide having enzyme activity.

Chemically modified or protein engineered mutants of polypeptides having enzyme activity may also be used.

One or more (several) components of the enzyme composition may be a recombinant component, i.e., produced by cloning of a DNA sequence encoding the single component and subsequent cell transformed with the DNA sequence and expressed in a host (see, for example, WO 91/17243 and WO 91/17244). The host is preferably a heterologous host (enzyme is foreign to host), but the host may under certain conditions also be a homologous host (enzyme is native to host). Monocomponent cellulolytic proteins may also be prepared by purifying such a protein from a fermentation broth.

In one aspect, the one or more (several) cellulolytic enzymes comprise a commercial cellulolytic enzyme preparation. Examples of commercial cellulolytic enzyme preparations suitable for use in the present invention include, for example, CELLIC™ Ctec (Novozymes A/S), CELLUCLAST™ (Novozymes A/S), NOVOZYM™ 188 (Novozymes A/S), CELLUZYME™ (Novozymes A/S), CEREFLO™ (Novozymes A/S), and ULTRAFLO™ (Novozymes A/S), ACCELERASE™ (Genencor Int.), LAMINEX™ (Genencor Int.), SPEZYME™ CP (Genencor Int.), ROHAMENT™ 7069 W (Röhm GmbH), FIBREZYME® LDI (Dyadic International, Inc.), FIBREZYME® LBR (Dyadic International, Inc.), or VISCOSTAR® 150L (Dyadic International, Inc.). The cellulase enzymes are added in amounts effective from about 0.001 to about 5.0 wt % of solids, more preferably from about 0.025 to about 4.0 wt % of solids, and most preferably from about 0.005 to about 2.0 wt % of solids. The cellulase enzymes are added in amounts effective from about 0.001 to about 5.0 wt % of solids, more preferably from about 0.025 to about 4.0 wt % of solids, and most preferably from about 0.005 to about 2.0 wt % of solids.

Examples of bacterial endoglucanases that can be used in the methods of the present invention, include, but are not limited to, an Acidothermus cellulolyticus endoglucanase (WO 91/05039; WO 93/15186; U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,944; WO 96/02551; U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,655, WO 00/70031, WO 05/093050); Thermobifida fusca endoglucanase III (WO 05/093050); and Thermobifida fusca endoglucanase V (WO 05/093050).

Examples of fungal endoglucanases that can be used in the methods of the present invention, include, but are not limited to, a Trichoderma reesei endoglucanase I (Penttila et al., 1986, Gene 45: 253-263; GENBANK™ accession no. M15665); Trichoderma reesei endoglucanase II (Saloheimo, et al., 1988, Gene 63:11-22; GENBANK™ accession no. M19373); Trichoderma reesei endoglucanase III (Okada et al., 1988, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 64: 555-563; GENBANK™ accession no. AB003694); and Trichoderma reesei endoglucanase V (Saloheimo et al., 1994, Molecular Microbiology 13: 219-228; GENBANK™ accession no. Z33381); Aspergillus aculeatus endoglucanase (Ooi et al., 1990, Nucleic Acids Research 18: 5884); Aspergillus kawachii endoglucanase (Sakamoto et al., 1995, Current Genetics 27: 435-439); Erwinia carotovara endoglucanase (Saarilahti et al., 1990, Gene 90: 9-14); Fusarium oxysporum endoglucanase (GENBANK™ accession no. L29381); Humicola grisea var. thermoidea endoglucanase (GENBANK™ accession no. AB003107); Melanocarpus albomyces endoglucanase (GENBANK™ accession no. MAL515703); Neurospora crassa endoglucanase (GENBANK™ accession no. XM_(—)324477); Humicola insolens endoglucanase V; Myceliophthora thermophila CBS 117.65 endoglucanase; basidiomycete CBS 495.95 endoglucanase; basidiomycete CBS 494.95 endoglucanase; Thielavia terrestris NRRL 8126 CEL6B endoglucanase; Thielavia terrestris NRRL 8126 CEL6C endoglucanase); Thielavia terrestris NRRL 8126 CEL7C endoglucanase; Thielavia terrestris NRRL 8126 CEL7E endoglucanase; Thielavia terrestris NRRL 8126 CEL7F endoglucanase; Cladorrhinum foecundissimum ATCC 62373 CEL7A endoglucanase; and Trichoderma reesei strain No. VTT-D-80133 endoglucanase (GENBANK™ accession no. M15665).

Examples of cellobiohydrolases useful in the methods of the present invention include, but are not limited to, Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I; Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase II; Humicola insolens cellobiohydrolase I, Myceliophthora thermophila cellobiohydrolase II, Thielavia terrestris cellobiohydrolase II (CEL6A), Chaetomium thermophilum cellobiohydrolase I, and Chaetomium thermophilum cellobiohydrolase II.

Examples of beta-glucosidases useful in the methods of the present invention include, but are not limited to, Aspergillus oryzae beta-glucosidase; Aspergillus fumigatus beta-glucosidase; Penicillium brasilianum IBT 20888 beta-glucosidase; Aspergillus niger beta-glucosidase; and Aspergillus aculeatus beta-glucosidase.

The Aspergillus oryzae polypeptide having beta-glucosidase activity can be obtained according to WO 2002/095014. The Aspergillus fumigatus polypeptide having beta-glucosidase activity can be obtained according to WO 2005/047499. The Penicillium brasilianum polypeptide having beta-glucosidase activity can be obtained according to WO 2007/019442. The Aspergillus niger polypeptide having beta-glucosidase activity can be obtained according to Dan et al., 2000, J. Biol. Chem. 275: 4973-4980. The Aspergillus aculeatus polypeptide having beta-glucosidase activity can be obtained according to Kawaguchi et al., 1996, Gene 173: 287-288.

The beta-glucosidase may be a fusion protein. In one aspect, the beta-glucosidase is the Aspergillus oryzae beta-glucosidase variant BG fusion protein or the Aspergillus oryzae beta-glucosidase fusion protein obtained according to WO 2008/057637.

Other endoglucanases, cellobiohydrolases, and beta-glucosidases are disclosed in numerous Glycosyl Hydrolase families using the classification according to Henrissat B., 1991, A classification of glycosyl hydrolases based on amino-acid sequence similarities, Biochem. J. 280: 309-316, and Henrissat B., and Bairoch A., 1996, Updating the sequence-based classification of glycosyl hydrolases, Biochem. J. 316: 695-696.

Other cellulolytic enzymes that may be used in the present invention are described in EP 495,257, EP 531,315, EP 531,372, WO 89/09259, WO 94/07998, WO 95/24471, WO 96/11262, WO 96/29397, WO 96/034108, WO 97/14804, WO 98/08940, WO 98/012307, WO 98/13465, WO 98/015619, WO 98/015633, WO 98/028411, WO 99/06574, WO 99/10481, WO 99/025846, WO 99/025847, WO 99/031255, WO 2000/009707, WO 2002/050245, WO 2002/0076792, WO 2002/101078, WO 2003/027306, WO 2003/052054, WO 2003/052055, WO 2003/052056, WO 2003/052057, WO 2003/052118, WO 2004/016760, WO 2004/043980, WO 2004/048592, WO 2005/001065, WO 2005/028636, WO 2005/093050, WO 2005/093073, WO 2006/074005, WO 2006/117432, WO 2007/071818, WO 2007/071820, WO 2008/008070, WO 2008/008793, U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,307, U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,046, U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,263, U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,593, U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,178, U.S. Pat. No. 5,763,254, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,757.

In one aspect, the one or more (several) hemicellulolytic enzymes comprise a commercial hemicellulolytic enzyme preparation. Examples of commercial hemicellulolytic enzyme preparations suitable for use in the present invention include, for example, SHEARZYME™ (Novozymes A/S), CELLIC™ Htec (Novozymes A/S), VISCOZYME® (Novozymes A/S), ULTRAFLO® (Novozymes A/S), PULPZYME® HC (Novozymes A/S), MULTIFECT® Xylanase (Genencor), ECOPULP® TX-200A (AB Enzymes), HSP 6000 Xylanase (DSM), DEPOL™ 333P (Biocatalysts Limit, Wales, UK), DEPOL™ 740L. (Biocatalysts Limit, Wales, UK), and DEPOL™ 762P (Biocatalysts Limit, Wales, UK).

Examples of xylanases useful in the methods of the present invention include, but are not limited to, Aspergillus aculeatus xylanase (GeneSeqP:AAR63790; WO 94/21785), Aspergillus fumigatus xylanases (WO 2006/078256), and Thielavia terrestris NRRL 8126 xylanases (WO 2009/079210).

Examples of beta-xylosidases useful in the methods of the present invention include, but are not limited to, Trichoderma reesei beta-xylosidase (UniProtKB/TrEMBL accession number Q92458), Talaromyces emersonii (SwissProt accession number Q8×212), and Neurospora crassa (SwissProt accession number Q7SOW4).

Examples of acetylxylan esterases useful in the methods of the present invention include, but are not limited to, Hypocrea jecorina acetylxylan esterase (WO 2005/001036), Neurospora crassa acetylxylan esterase (UniProt accession number q7s259), Thielavia terrestris NRRL 8126 acetylxylan esterase (WO 2009/042846), Chaetomium globosum acetylxylan esterase (Uniprot accession number Q2GWX4), Chaetomium gracile acetylxylan esterase (GeneSeqP accession number AAB82124), Phaeosphaeria nodorum acetylxylan esterase (Uniprot accession number Q0UHJ1), and Humicola insolens DSM 1800 acetylxylan esterase (WO 2009/073709).

Examples of ferulic acid esterases useful in the methods of the present invention include, but are not limited to, Humicola insolens DSM 1800 feruloyl esterase (WO 2009/076122), Neurospora crassa feruloyl esterase (UniProt accession number Q9HGR3), and Neosartorya fischeri feruloyl esterase (UniProt Accession number A1D9T4).

Examples of arabinofuranosidases useful in the methods of the present invention include, but are not limited to, Humicola insolens DSM 1800 arabinofuranosidase (WO 2009/073383) and Aspergillus niger arabinofuranosidase (GeneSeqP accession number AAR94170).

Examples of alpha-glucuronidases useful in the methods of the present invention include, but are not limited to, Aspergillus clavatus alpha-glucuronidase (UniProt accession number alcc12), Trichoderma reesei alpha-glucuronidase (Uniprot accession number Q99024), Talaromyces emersonii alpha-glucuronidase (UniProt accession number Q8X211), Aspergillus niger alpha-glucuronidase (Uniprot accession number Q96WX9), Aspergillus terreus alpha-glucuronidase (SwissProt accession number Q0CJP9), and Aspergillus fumigatus alpha-glucuronidase (SwissProt accession number Q4WW45).

The enzymes and proteins used in the methods of the present invention may be produced by fermentation of the above-noted microbial strains on a nutrient medium containing suitable carbon and nitrogen sources and inorganic salts, using procedures known in the art (see, e.g., Bennett, J. W. and LaSure, L. (eds.), More Gene Manipulations in Fungi, Academic Press, Calif., 1991). Suitable media are available from commercial suppliers or may be prepared according to published compositions (e.g., in catalogues of the American Type Culture Collection). Temperature ranges and other conditions suitable for growth and enzyme production are known in the art (see, e.g., Bailey, J. E., and 011 is, D. F., Biochemical Engineering Fundamentals, McGraw-Hill Book Company, NY, 1986).

The fermentation can be any method of cultivation of a cell resulting in the expression or isolation of an enzyme. Fermentation may, therefore, be understood as comprising shake flask cultivation, or small- or large-scale fermentation (including continuous, batch, fed-batch, or solid state fermentations) in laboratory or industrial fermentors performed in a suitable medium and under conditions allowing the enzyme to be expressed or isolated. The resulting enzymes produced by the methods described above may be recovered from the fermentation medium and purified by conventional procedures.

Fermentation. The fermentable sugars obtained from the hydrolyzed cellulosic material can be fermented by one or more (several) fermenting microorganisms capable of fermenting the sugars directly or indirectly into a desired fermentation product. “Fermentation” or “fermentation process” refers to any fermentation process or any process comprising a fermentation step. Fermentation processes also include fermentation processes used in the consumable alcohol industry (e.g., beer and wine), dairy industry (e.g., fermented dairy products), leather industry, and tobacco industry. The fermentation conditions depend on the desired fermentation product and fermenting organism and can easily be determined by one skilled in the art.

In the fermentation step, sugars, released from cellulosic material as a result of the pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis steps, are fermented to a product, e.g., ethanol, by a fermenting organism, such as yeast. Hydrolysis (saccharification) and fermentation can be separate or simultaneous, as described herein.

Any suitable hydrolyzed cellulosic material can be used in the fermentation step in practicing the present invention. The material is generally selected based on the desired fermentation product, i.e., the substance to be obtained from the fermentation, and the process employed, as is well known in the art.

The term “fermentation medium” is understood herein to refer to a medium before the fermenting microorganism(s) is(are) added, such as, a medium resulting from a saccharification process, as well as a medium used in a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation process (SSF).

“Fermenting microorganism” refers to any microorganism, including bacterial and fungal organisms, suitable for use in a desired fermentation process to produce a fermentation product. The fermenting organism can be C₆ and/or C₅ fermenting organisms, or a combination thereof. Both C₆ and C₅ fermenting organisms are well known in the art. Suitable fermenting microorganisms are able to ferment, i.e., convert, sugars, such as glucose, xylose, xylulose, arabinose, maltose, mannose, galactose, or oligosaccharides, directly or indirectly into the desired fermentation product.

Examples of bacterial and fungal fermenting organisms producing ethanol are described by Lin et al., 2006, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 69: 627-642.

Examples of fermenting microorganisms that can ferment C₆ sugars include bacterial and fungal organisms, such as yeast. Preferred yeast includes strains of the Saccharomyces spp., preferably Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Examples of fermenting organisms that can ferment C₅ sugars include bacterial and fungal organisms, such as yeast. Preferred C₅ fermenting yeast include strains of Pichia, preferably Pichia stipitis, such as Pichia stipitis CBS 5773; strains of Candida, preferably Candida boidinii, Candida brassicae, Candida sheatae, Candida diddensii, Candida pseudotropicalis, or Candida utilis.

Other fermenting organisms include strains of Zymomonas, such as Zymomonas mobilis; Hansenula, such as Hansenula anomala; Kluyveromyces, such as K. fragilis; Schizosaccharomyces, such as S. pombe; and E. coli, especially E. coli strains that have been genetically modified to improve the yield of ethanol.

In a preferred aspect, the yeast is a Saccharomyces spp. In a more preferred aspect, the yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Saccharomyces distaticus. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Saccharomyces uvarum. In another preferred aspect, the yeast is a Kluyveromyces. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Kluyveromyces marxianus. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Kluyveromyces fragilis. In another preferred aspect, the yeast is a Candida. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Candida boidinii. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Candida brassicae. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Candida diddensii. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Candida pseudotropicalis. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Candida utilis. In another preferred aspect, the yeast is a Clavispora. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Clavispora lusitaniae. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Clavispora opuntiae. In another preferred aspect, the yeast is a Pachysolen. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Pachysolen tannophilus. In another preferred aspect, the yeast is a Pichia. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is a Pichia stipitis. In another preferred aspect, the yeast is a Bretannomyces. In another more preferred aspect, the yeast is Bretannomyces clausenii (Philippidis, G. P., 1996, Cellulose bioconversion technology, in Handbook on Bioethanol: Production and Utilization, Wyman, C. E., ed., Taylor & Francis, Washington, D.C., 179-212).

Bacteria that can efficiently ferment hexose and pentose to ethanol include, for example, Zymomonas mobilis and Clostridium thermocellum (Philippidis, 1996, supra).

In a preferred aspect, the bacterium is a Zymomonas. In a more preferred aspect, the bacterium is Zymomonas mobilis. In another preferred aspect, the bacterium is a Clostridium. In another more preferred aspect, the bacterium is Clostridium thermocellum.

Commercially available yeast suitable for ethanol production includes, e.g., ETHANOL RED™ yeast (available from Fermentis/Lesaffre, USA), FALI™ (available from Fleischmann's Yeast, USA), SUPERSTART™ and THERMOSACC™ fresh yeast (available from Ethanol Technology, WI, USA), BIOFERM™ AFT and XR (available from NABC—North American Bioproducts Corporation, Ga., USA), GERT STRAND™ (available from Gert Strand AB, Sweden), and FERMIOL™ (available from DSM Specialties).

In a preferred aspect, the fermenting microorganism has been genetically modified to provide the ability to ferment pentose sugars, such as xylose utilizing, arabinose utilizing, and xylose and arabinose co-utilizing microorganisms.

The cloning of heterologous genes into various fermenting microorganisms has led to the construction of organisms capable of converting hexoses and pentoses to ethanol (cofermentation) (Chen and Ho, 1993, Cloning and improving the expression of Pichia stipitis xylose reductase gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 39-40: 135-147; Ho et al., 1998, Genetically engineered Saccharomyces yeast capable of effectively cofermenting glucose and xylose, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 64: 1852-1859; Kotter and Ciriacy, 1993, Xylose fermentation by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 38: 776-783; Walfridsson et al., 1995, Xylose-metabolizing Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains overexpressing the TKL1 and TAL1 genes encoding the pentose phosphate pathway enzymes transketolase and transaldolase, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 61: 4184-4190; Kuyper et al., 2004, Minimal metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for efficient anaerobic xylose fermentation: a proof of principle, FEMS Yeast Research 4: 655-664; Beall et al., 1991, Parametric studies of ethanol production from xylose and other sugars by recombinant Escherichia coli, Biotech. Bioeng. 38: 296-303; Ingram et al., 1998, Metabolic engineering of bacteria for ethanol production, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 58: 204-214; Zhang et al., 1995, Metabolic engineering of a pentose metabolism pathway in ethanologenic Zymomonas mobilis, Science 267: 240-243; Deanda et al., 1996, Development of an arabinose-fermenting Zymomonas mobilis strain by metabolic pathway engineering, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62: 4465-4470; WO 2003/062430, xylose isomerase).

In a preferred aspect, the genetically modified fermenting microorganism is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In another preferred aspect, the genetically modified fermenting microorganism is Zymomonas mobilis. In another preferred aspect, the genetically modified fermenting microorganism is Escherichia coli. In another preferred aspect, the genetically modified fermenting microorganism is Klebsiella oxytoca. In another preferred aspect, the genetically modified fermenting microorganism is Kluyveromyces sp.

It is well known in the art that the organisms described above can also be used to produce other substances, as described herein.

The fermenting microorganism is typically added to the degraded lignocellulose or hydrolysate and the fermentation is performed for about 8 to about 96 hours, such as about 24 to about 60 hours. The temperature is typically between about 26° C. to about 60° C., in particular about 32° C. or 50° C., and at about pH 3 to about pH 8, such as around pH 4-5, 6, or 7.

In a preferred aspect, the yeast and/or another microorganism is applied to the degraded cellulosic material and the fermentation is performed for about 12 to about 96 hours, such as typically 24-60 hours. In a preferred aspect, the temperature is preferably between about 20° C. to about 60° C., more preferably about 25° C. to about 50° C., and most preferably about 32° C. to about 50° C., in particular about 32° C. or 50° C., and the pH is generally from about pH 3 to about pH 7, preferably around pH 4-7. However, some fermenting organisms, e.g., bacteria, have higher fermentation temperature optima. Yeast or another microorganism is preferably applied in amounts of approximately 10⁵ to 10¹², preferably from approximately 10⁷ to 10¹⁰, especially approximately 2×10⁸ viable cell count per ml of fermentation broth. Further guidance in respect of using yeast for fermentation can be found in, e.g., “The Alcohol Textbook” (Editors K. Jacques, T. P. Lyons and D. R. Kelsall, Nottingham University Press, United Kingdom 1999), which is hereby incorporated by reference.

For ethanol production, following the fermentation the fermented slurry is distilled to extract the ethanol. The ethanol obtained according to the methods of the invention can be used as, e.g., fuel ethanol, drinking ethanol, i.e., potable neutral spirits, or industrial ethanol.

A fermentation stimulator can be used in combination with any of the processes described herein to further improve the fermentation process, and in particular, the performance of the fermenting microorganism, such as, rate enhancement and ethanol yield. A “fermentation stimulator” refers to stimulators for growth of the fermenting microorganisms, in particular, yeast. Preferred fermentation stimulators for growth include vitamins and minerals. Examples of vitamins include multivitamins, biotin, pantothenate, nicotinic acid, meso-inositol, thiamine, pyridoxine, para-aminobenzoic acid, folic acid, riboflavin, and Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E. See, for example, Alfenore et al., Improving ethanol production and viability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by a vitamin feeding strategy during fed-batch process, Springer-Verlag (2002), which is hereby incorporated by reference. Examples of minerals include minerals and mineral salts that can supply nutrients comprising P, K, Mg, S, Ca, Fe, Zn, Mn, and Cu.

Fermentation products: A fermentation product can be any substance derived from the fermentation. The fermentation product can be, without limitation, an alcohol (e.g., arabinitol, butanol, ethanol, glycerol, methanol, 1,3-propanediol, sorbitol, and xylitol); an organic acid (e.g., acetic acid, acetonic acid, adipic acid, ascorbic acid, citric acid, 2,5-diketo-D-gluconic acid, formic acid, fumaric acid, glucaric acid, gluconic acid, glucuronic acid, glutaric acid, 3-hydroxypropionic acid, itaconic acid, lactic acid, malic acid, malonic acid, oxalic acid, oxaloacetic acid, propionic acid, succinic acid, and xylonic acid); a ketone (e.g., acetone); an amino acid (e.g., aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, lysine, serine, and threonine); and a gas (e.g., methane, hydrogen (H₂), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and carbon monoxide (CO)). The fermentation product can also be protein as a high value product.

In a preferred aspect, the fermentation product is an alcohol. It will be understood that the term “alcohol” encompasses a substance that contains one or more hydroxyl moieties. In a more preferred aspect, the alcohol is arabinitol. In another more preferred aspect, the alcohol is butanol. In another more preferred aspect, the alcohol is ethanol. In another more preferred aspect, the alcohol is glycerol. In another more preferred aspect, the alcohol is methanol. In another more preferred aspect, the alcohol is 1,3-propanediol. In another more preferred aspect, the alcohol is sorbitol. In another more preferred aspect, the alcohol is xylitol. See, for example, Gong, C. S., Cao, N. J., Du, J., and Tsao, G. T., 1999, Ethanol production from renewable resources, in Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, Scheper, T., ed., Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Germany, 65: 207-241; Silveira, M. M., and Jonas, R., 2002, The biotechnological production of sorbitol, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 59: 400-408; Nigam, P., and Singh, D., 1995, Processes for fermentative production of xylitol—a sugar substitute, Process Biochemistry 30 (2): 117-124; Ezeji, T. C., Qureshi, N. and Blaschek, H. P., 2003, Production of acetone, butanol and ethanol by Clostridium beijerinckii BA101 and in situ recovery by gas stripping, World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 19 (6): 595-603.

In another preferred aspect, the fermentation product is an organic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is acetic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is acetonic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is adipic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is ascorbic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is citric acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is 2,5-diketo-D-gluconic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is formic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is fumaric acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is glucaric acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is gluconic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is glucuronic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is glutaric acid. In another preferred aspect, the organic acid is 3-hydroxypropionic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is itaconic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is lactic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is malic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is malonic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is oxalic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is propionic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is succinic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is xylonic acid. See, for example, Chen, R., and Lee, Y. Y., 1997, Membrane-mediated extractive fermentation for lactic acid production from cellulosic biomass, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 63-65: 435-448.

In another preferred aspect, the fermentation product is a ketone. It will be understood that the term “ketone” encompasses a substance that contains one or more ketone moieties. In another more preferred aspect, the ketone is acetone. See, for example, Qureshi and Blaschek, 2003, supra.

In another preferred aspect, the fermentation product is an amino acid. In another more preferred aspect, the organic acid is aspartic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the amino acid is glutamic acid. In another more preferred aspect, the amino acid is glycine. In another more preferred aspect, the amino acid is lysine. In another more preferred aspect, the amino acid is serine. In another more preferred aspect, the amino acid is threonine. See, for example, Richard, A., and Margaritis, A., 2004, Empirical modeling of batch fermentation kinetics for poly(glutamic acid) production and other microbial biopolymers, Biotechnology and Bioengineering 87 (4): 501-515.

In another preferred aspect, the fermentation product is a gas. In another more preferred aspect, the gas is methane. In another more preferred aspect, the gas is H₂. In another more preferred aspect, the gas is CO₂. In another more preferred aspect, the gas is CO. See, for example, Kataoka, N., A. Miya, and K. Kiriyama, 1997, Studies on hydrogen production by continuous culture system of hydrogen-producing anaerobic bacteria, Water Science and Technology 36 (6-7): 41-47; and Gunaseelan V. N. in Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol. 13 (1-2), pp. 83-114, 1997, Anaerobic digestion of biomass for methane production: A review.

Recovery. The fermentation product(s) can be optionally recovered from the fermentation medium using any method known in the art including, but not limited to, chromatography, electrophoretic procedures, differential solubility, distillation, or extraction. For example, alcohol is separated from the fermented cellulosic material and purified by conventional methods of distillation. Ethanol with a purity of up to about 96 vol. % can be obtained, which can be used as, for example, fuel ethanol, drinking ethanol, i.e., potable neutral spirits, or industrial ethanol.

Signal Peptide

The present invention also relates to an isolated polynucleotide encoding a signal peptide comprising or consisting of amino acids 1 to 21 of SEQ ID NO: 2. The polynucleotide may further comprise a gene encoding a protein, which is operably linked to the signal peptide. The protein is preferably foreign to the signal peptide and/or propeptide.

The present invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, expression vectors and recombinant host cells comprising such a polynucleotide.

The present invention also relates to methods of producing a protein, comprising: (a) cultivating a recombinant host cell comprising such a polynucleotide; and (b) recovering the protein.

The protein may be native or heterologous to a host cell. The term “protein” is not meant herein to refer to a specific length of the encoded product and, therefore, encompasses peptides, oligopeptides, and polypeptides. The term “protein” also encompasses two or more polypeptides combined to form the encoded product. The proteins also include hybrid polypeptides and fused polypeptides.

Preferably, the protein is a hormone or variant thereof, enzyme, receptor or portion thereof, antibody or portion thereof, or reporter. For example, the protein may be an oxidoreductase, transferase, hydrolase, lyase, isomerase, or ligase such as an aminopeptidase, amylase, carbohydrase, carboxypeptidase, catalase, cellulase, chitinase, cutinase, cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase, deoxyribonuclease, esterase, alpha-galactosidase, beta-galactosidase, glucoamylase, alpha-glucosidase, beta-glucosidase, invertase, laccase, another lipase, mannosidase, mutanase, oxidase, pectinolytic enzyme, peroxidase, phytase, polyphenoloxidase, proteolytic enzyme, ribonuclease, transglutaminase or xylanase.

The gene may be obtained from any prokaryotic, eukaryotic, or other source.

The present invention is further described by the following examples that should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention.

EXAMPLES Media

PDA plates were composed of 39.0 grams of potato dextrose agar and distilled water to 1 liter.

YG agar plates were composed of 5.0 g of yeast extract, 10.0 g of glucose, 20.0 g of agar, and distilled water to 1 liter.

NNCYP-PCS medium was composed of 5.0 g of NaNO₃, 3.0 g of NH₄Cl, 2.0 g of MES, 2.5 g of citric acid, 0.2 g of CaCl₂ 2H₂O, 1.0 g of Bacto Peptone, 5.0 g of yeast extract, 0.2 g of MgSO₄ 7H₂O, 4.0 g of K₂HPO₄, 1.0 ml of COVE trace elements solution, 2.5 g of glucose, 25.0 g of PCS, and distilled water to 1 liter.

COVE trace elements solution was composed of 0.04 g of Na₂B₄O₇.10H₂O, 0.4 g of CuSO₄.5H₂O, 1.2 g of FeSO₄.7H₂O, 0.7 g of MnSO₄.H₂O, 0.8 g of Na₂MoO₂.2H₂O, 10 g of ZnSO₄.7H₂O, and distilled water to 1 liter.

LB agar plates were composed of 10 g of tryptone, 5 g of yeast extract, 10 g of sodium chloride, 15 g of agar, and distilled water 1 liter.

SOC medium was composed of 2% tryptone, 0.5% yeast extract, 10 mM NaCl, 2.5 mM KCl, 10 mM MgCl₂, 10 mM MgSO₄, and 20 mM glucose.

YPM medium was composed of 1% yeast extract, 2% peptone, and 2% maltose.

Minimal medium plates were composed of 6 g of NaNO₃, 0.52 g of KCl, 1.52 g of KH₂PO₄, 1 ml of COVE trace elements solution, 20 g of Noble agar, 20 ml of 50% glucose, 2.5 ml of 20% MgSO₄.7H₂O, 20 ml of a 0.02% biotin solution, and distilled water to 1 liter.

Example 1 Isolation of Penicillium pinophilum Strain NN046877 from Soil Sample

Penicillium pinophilum NN046877 was isolated from a soil from Hunan, China by directly plating the soil sample onto a PDA plate followed by incubation at 37° C. for 5 days. The strain was then purified by transferring the mycelia onto a YG agar plate. The strain NN046877 was identified as Penicillium pinophilum based on both morphological and molecular (ITS sequencing) characterization.

Example 2 Isolation of Penicillium pinophilum Strain NN046877 RNA

Penicillium pinophilum strain NN46877 was inoculated onto a PDA plate and incubated for 4 days at 37° C. in the dark. Several mycelia-PDA plugs were inoculated into 500 ml shake flasks each containing 100 ml of NNCYP-PCS medium. The flasks were incubated for 5 days at 37° C. with shaking at 160 rpm. The mycelia were collected at day 4 and day 5. Then the mycelia from each day were frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored in a −80° C. freezer until use.

The frozen mycelia were transferred into a liquid nitrogen prechilled mortar and pestle and ground to a fine powder. Total RNA was prepared from the powdered mycelia for day 4 and day 5 by extraction with TRIZOL® reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif., USA). The polyA enriched RNA was isolated using a mTRAP™ Total Kit (Active Motif, Carlsbad, Calif., USA).

Example 3 Construction of a Penicillium pinophilum Strain cDNA Library

Double stranded cDNA for day 4 and day 5 was synthesized using a SMART™ cDNA Library Construction Kit (Takara Bio Inc., Otsu, Shiga, Japan). The cDNA was cleaved with Sfi I using standard methods and the cDNA was size fractionated by 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis using 44 mM Tris base, 44 mM boric acid, 0.5 mM EDTA (TBE) buffer. A fraction of cDNA of 500 by and larger was excised from the gel and purified using a GFX® PCR DNA and Gel Band Purification Kit (GE Healthcare, Buckinghamshire, UK) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Then equal amounts of cDNA from day 4 and day 5 were pooled for library construction.

The cDNA was then directionally cloned by ligation into Sfi I cleaved pMHas7 (WO 2009/037253) using T4 ligase (New England Biolabs, Ipswich, Mass., USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The ligation mixture was electroporated into E. coli ELECTROMAX™ DH10B™ cells (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif., USA) using a GENE PULSER® and Pulse Controller (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Hercules, Calif., USA) at 25 μF, 25 mAmp, 1.8 kV with a 1 mm gap cuvette according to the manufacturer's procedure.

The electroporated cells were plated onto LB agar plates supplemented with 50 mg of kanamycin per liter. A cDNA plasmid pool was prepared from 60,000 total transformants of the original pMHas7 vector ligation. Plasmid DNA was prepared directly from the pool of colonies using a QIAGEN® Plasmid Kit (QIAGEN Inc., Valencia, Calif., USA).

Example 4 Construction of a SigA4 Transposon Containing the β-Lactamase Reporter Gene

A transposon containing plasmid designated pSigA4 was constructed from the pSigA2 transposon containing plasmid described in WO 01/77315 in order to create an improved version of the signal trapping transposon of pSigA2 with decreased selection background. The pSigA2 transposon contains a signal less beta-lactamase construct encoded on the transposon itself. PCR was used to create a deletion of the intact beta-lactamase gene found on the plasmid backbone using PROOFSTART™ DNA polymerase (QIAGEN GmbH Corporation, Hilden, Germany) and the following 5′ phosphorylated primers (TAG Copenhagen, Denmark):

SigA2NotU-P: (SEQ ID NO: 3) 5′-TCGCGATCCGTTTTCGCATTTATCGTGAAACGCT-3′ SigA2NotD-P: (SEQ ID NO: 4) 5′-CCGCAAACGCTGGTGAAAGTAAAAGATGCTGAA-3′

The amplification reaction was composed of 1 μl of pSigA2 (10 ng per μl), 5 μl of 10× PROOFSTART™ Buffer (QIAGEN GmbH Corporation, Hilden, Germany), 2.5 μl of dNTP mix (20 mM), 0.5 μl of SigA2NotU-P (10 mM), 0.5 μl of SigA2NotD-P (10 mM), 10 μl of Q solution (QIAGEN GmbH Corporation, Hilden, Germany), and 31.25 μl of deionized water. A DNA ENGINE™ Thermal Cycler (MJ Research Inc., Waltham, Mass., USA) was used for amplification programmed for one cycle at 95° C. for 5 minutes; and 20 cycles each at 94° C. for 30 seconds, 62° C. for 30 seconds, and 72° C. for 4 minutes.

A 3.9 kb PCR reaction product was isolated by 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis using 40 mM Tris base-20 mM sodium acetate-1 mM disodium EDTA (TAE) buffer and 0.1 μg of ethidium bromide per ml. The DNA band was visualized with the aid of an EAGLE EYE® Imaging System (Stratagene, La Jolla, Calif., USA) at 360 nm. The 3.9 kb DNA band was excised from the gel and purified using a GFX® PCR DNA and Gel Band Purification Kit according to the manufacturer's instructions.

The 3.9 kb fragment was self-ligated at 16° C. overnight with 10 units of T4 DNA ligase (New England Biolabs, Inc., Ipwich, Mass., USA), 9 μl of the 3.9 kb PCR fragment, and 1 μl of 10× ligation buffer (New England Biolabs, Inc., Ipwich, Mass., USA). The ligation was heat inactivated for 10 minutes at 65° C. and then digested with Dpn I at 37° C. for 2 hours. After incubation, the digestion was purified using a GFX® PCR DNA and Gel Band Purification Kit.

The purified material was then transformed into E. coli TOP10™ competent cells (TIANGEN Biotech (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Beijing, China) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The transformation mixture was plated onto LB agar plates supplemented with 25 μg of chloramphenicol per ml. Plasmid minipreps were prepared from several transformants and digested with Bgl II. One plasmid with the correct construction was chosen. The plasmid was designated pSigA4. Plasmid pSigA4 contains the Bgl II flanked transposon SigA2 identical to that disclosed in WO 01/77315.

A 60 μl sample of plasmid pSigA4 DNA (0.3 μg/μl) was digested with Bgl II and separated by 0.8% agarose gel electrophoresis using TBE buffer. A SigA2 transposon DNA band of 2 kb was eluted with 200 μl of EB buffer (QIAGEN GmbH Corporation, Hilden, Germany) and purified using a GFX® PCR DNA and Gel Band Purification Kit according to the manufacturer's instructions and eluted in 200 μl of EB buffer. SigA2 was used for transposon assisted signal trapping.

Example 5 Transposon Assisted Signal Trapping of Penicillium pinophilum Strain

A complete description of transposon assisted signal trapping can be found in WO 01/77315. The plasmid pool was treated with transposon SigA2 and HYPERMU™ MuA transposase (Epicenter Biotechnologies, Inc., Madison, Wis., USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions.

For in vitro transposon tagging of the Penicillium pinophilum cDNA library, 2 μl of SigA2 transposon containing approximately 100 ng of DNA were mixed with 1 μl of the plasmid DNA pool of the Penicillium pinophilum cDNA library containing 1 μg of DNA, 1 μl of HYPERMU™ MuA transposase, and 2 μl of 10× buffer (Epicenter Biotechnologies, Inc., Madison, Wis., USA) in a total volume of 20 μl and incubated at 30° C. for 3 hours followed by addition of 2 μl of stop buffer (Epicenter Biotechnologies, Inc., Madison, Wis., USA) and heat inactivation at 75° C. for 10 minutes. The DNA was precipitated by addition of 2 μl of 3 M sodium acetate pH 5 and 55 μl of 96% ethanol and centrifuged at 10,000×g for 30 minutes at 4° C. The pellet was washed in 70% ethanol, air dried at room temperature, and resuspended in 10 μl of deionized water.

A 2 μl volume of the transposon tagged plasmid pool was electroporated into 50 μl of E. coli ELECTROMAX™ DH10B™ cells using a GENE PULSER® and Pulse Controller at 25 μF, 25 mAmp, 1.8 kV with a 1 mm gap cuvette according to the manufacturer's procedure.

The electroporated cells were incubated in SOC medium for 1 hour at 37° C. with shaking at 225 rpm before being plated onto the following selective media: LB agar medium supplemented with 50 μg of kanamycin per ml; LB agar medium supplemented with 50 μg of kanamycin per ml and 15 μg of chloramphencol per ml; and LB agar medium supplemented with 50 μg of kanamycin per ml, 15 μg of chloramphencol per ml, and 30 μg of ampicillin per ml.

From plating of the electroporation onto LB agar medium supplemented with kanamycin, chloramphencol and ampicillin, approximately 200 colonies per 50 μl were observed after 3 days at 30° C. All colonies were replica plated onto LB agar medium supplemented with 50 μg of kanamycin per ml, 15 μg of chloramphencol per ml, and 100 μg of ampicillin per ml. Five hundred colonies were recovered under this selection condition. Plasmid DNA from the colonies were sequenced with the transposon forward and reverse primers (primers A and B), shown below, according to the procedure disclosed in WO 01/77315.

Primer A: 5′-agcgtttgcggccgcgatcc-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 5) Primer B: 5′-ttattcggtcgaaaaggatcc-3′ (SEQ ID NO: 6)

Example 6 Sequence Assembly and Annotation

DNA sequences were obtained from SinoGenoMax Co., Ltd., Beijing, China. Primer A and primer B sequence reads for each plasmid were trimmed to remove vector and transposon sequence. The assembled sequences were grouped into contigs by using the program PhredPhrap (Ewing et al., 1998, Genome Research 8: 175-185; Ewing and Green, 1998, Genome Research 8: 186-194). All contigs were subsequently compared to sequences available in public DNA and protein sequences databases (TrEMBL, SWALL, PDB, EnsemblPep, GeneSeqP) by using the program BLASTX 2.0a19MP-WashU [14 Jul. 1998] [Build linux-x86 18:51:44 30 Jul. 1998] (Gish et al., 1993, Nat. Genet. 3: 266-72). The Family GH61 protein was identified directly by analysis of the BlastX results.

Example 7 Cloning of the Penicillium pinophilum GH61A Polypeptide Gene from Genomic DNA

Penicillium pinophilum NN046877 was grown on a PDA plate at 37° C. for 4-5 days. Mycelia were collected directly from the agar plate into a sterilized mortar and frozen under liquid nitrogen. Frozen mycelia were ground, by mortar and pestle, to a fine powder, and genomic DNA was isolated using a DNEASY® Plant Mini Kit (QIAGEN Inc., Valencia, Calif., USA).

Based on the cDNA sequence obtained in Example 6, oligonucleotide primers, shown below, were designed to amplify the gh61 gene from the genomic DNA of Penicillium pinophilum NN046877. An IN-FUSION® CF Dry-down Cloning Kit (Clontech Laboratories, Inc., Mountain View, Calif., USA) was used to clone the fragment directly into the expression vector pPFJO355 (FIG. 2), without the need for restriction digestion and ligation.

Sense primer: (SEQ ID NO: 7) 5′-ACACAACTGGGGATCCACCATGCCTTCTACTAAAGTCGCTG-3′ Antisense primer: (SEQ ID NO: 8) 5′-GTCACCCTCTAGATCTTCAAAGGACAGTAGTGGTGATGAC-3′ Bold letters represented the coding sequence and the remaining sequence was homologous to the insertion sites of pPFJO355.

The expression vector pPFJO355 contains the TAKA-amylase promoter derived from Aspergillus oryzae, the Aspergillus niger glucoamylase terminator elements, pUC19 derived sequences for selection and propagation in E. coli, and an Aspergillus nidulans pyrG gene, which encodes an orotidine decarboxylase for selection of transformants of a pyrG mutant Aspergillus strain.

Twenty picomoles of each of the primers above were used in a PCR reaction composed of Penicillium pinophilum NN046877 genomic DNA, 10 μl of 5×GC Buffer (Finnzymes Oy, Espoo, Finland), 1.5 μl of DMSO, 2.5 mM each of dATP, dTTP, dGTP, and dCTP, and 0.6 unit of PHUSION™ High-Fidelity DNA Polymerase (Finnzymes Oy, Espoo, Finland) in a final volume of 50 μl. The amplification was performed using a Peltier Thermal Cycler (MJ Research Inc., South San Francisco, Calif., USA) programmed for denaturing at 98° C. for 1 minutes; 5 cycles each of denaturing at 98° C. for 15 seconds, annealing at 56° C. for 30 seconds, with a 1° C. increase per cycle and elongation at 72° C. for 75 seconds; 25 cycles each at 98° C. for 15 seconds, 65° C. for 30 seconds, and 72° C. for 75 seconds; and a final extension at 72° C. for 10 minutes. The heat block then went to a 4° C. soak cycle.

The reaction products were isolated by 1.0% agarose gel electrophoresis using TBE buffer where an approximately 1.0 kb product band was excised from the gel, and purified using an illustra GFX® PCR DNA and Gel Band Purification Kit (GE Healthcare, Buckinghamshire, UK) according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Plasmid pPFJO355 was digested with Bam HI and Bgl II, isolated by 1.0% agarose gel electrophoresis using TBE buffer, and purified using an illustra GFX® PCR DNA and Gel Band Purification Kit.

The gene fragment and the digested vector were ligated together using an IN-FUSION® CF Dry-down PCR Cloning Kit resulting in pPpin7 (FIG. 3) in which transcription of the Penicillium pinophilum GH61A polypeptide gene was under the control of a promoter from the gene for Aspergillus oryzae alpha-amylase. The cloning operation was performed according to the manufacturer's instructions. In brief, 30 ng of pPFJO355 digested with Bam HI and Bgl II, and 60 ng of the purified Penicillium pinophilum GH61A polypeptide PCR product were added to a reaction vial and resuspended in a final volume of 10 μl by addition of deionized water. The reaction was incubated at 37° C. for 15 minutes and then 50° C. for 15 minutes. Three μl of the reaction were used to transform E. coli TOP10™ competent cells. An E. coli transformant containing pPpin7 was detected by colony PCR and plasmid DNA was prepared using a QIAPREP™ Spin Miniprep Kit (QIAGEN Inc., Valencia, Calif., USA). The Penicillium pinophilum GH61A polypeptide gene inserted in pPpin7 was confirmed by DNA sequencing using a 3730XL DNA Analyzer (Applied Biosystems Inc, Foster City, Calif., USA).

The same PCR fragment was cloned into pGEM-T (Promega Corporation, Madison, Wis., USA) using a pGEM-T Vector System to generate pGEM-T-Ppin7 (FIG. 4). The Penicillium pinophilum GH61A polypeptide gene inserted in pGEM-T-Ppin7 was confirmed by DNA sequencing using a 3730XL DNA Analyzer. E. coli strain T-Ppin7, containing pGEM-T-Ppin7, was deposited with the Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen and Zellkulturen GmbH (DSM), Braunschweig, Germany, on Jun. 24, 2009 and assigned accession number DSM 22711.

Example 8 Characterization of the Penicillium pinophilum GH61A Polypeptide Gene

Nucleotide sequence data were scrutinized for quality and all sequences were compared to each other with assistance of PHRED/PHRAP software (University of Washington, Seattle, Wash., USA).

The nucleotide sequence (SEQ ID NO: 1) and deduced amino acid sequence (SEQ ID NO: 2) of the Penicillium pinophilum GH61A polypeptide genomic sequence are shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. The genomic fragment encodes a polypeptide of 322 amino acids, interrupted by 1 intron of 52 base pairs (nucleotides 102-153). The % G+C content of the full-length coding sequence and the mature coding sequence are 53.42% and 53.38%, respectively. Using the SignalP software program (Nielsen et al., 1997, Protein Engineering 10:1-6), a signal peptide of 21 residues was predicted. The predicted mature protein contains 301 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 32.68 kDa.

A comparative pairwise global alignment of amino acid sequences was determined using the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm (Needleman and Wunsch, 1970, J. Mol. Biol. 48: 443-453) as implemented in the Needle program of EMBOSS with gap open penalty of 10, gap extension penalty of 0.5, and the EBLOSUM62 matrix. The alignment showed that the deduced amino acid sequence of the mature polypeptide of the Penicillium pinophilum GH61A polypeptide gene shared 75% identity (excluding gaps) to the deduced amino acid sequence of a Thermoascus aurantiacus GH61A polypeptide gene (GeneSeq accession number AUP68836).

Example 9 Expression of Penicillium pinophilum GH61A Polypeptide Having Cellulolytic Enhancing Activity in Aspergillus oryzae

Aspergillus oryzae HowB101 (WO 95/35385) protoplasts were prepared according to the method of Christensen et al., 1988, Bio/Technology 6: 1419-1422 and transformed with three μg of pPpin7. The transformation yielded about 50 transformants. Four transformants were isolated to individual Minimal medium plates.

The four transformants were inoculated separately into 3 ml of YPM medium in a 24-well plate and incubated at 30° C. with shaking at 150 rpm. After 3 days incubation, 20 μl of supernatant from each culture were analyzed by SDS-PAGE using a NUPAGE® NOVEX® 4-12% Bis-Tris Gel with MES (Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, Calif., USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The resulting gel was stained with INSTANT BLUE™ (Expedeon Ltd., Babraham Cambridge, UK). SDS-PAGE showed that the majority of the transformants had a major band of approximately 64 kDa. The expression strain was designated A. oryzae EXP02769.

Slants of A. oryzae EXP02769 were washed with 10 ml of YPM medium and inoculated into 2 liter flasks each containing 400 ml of YPM medium to generate broth for characterization of the enzyme. The cultures were harvested on day 3 and filtered using a 0.45 μm DURAPORE® Membrane (Millipore, Bedford, Mass., USA).

Example 10 Purification of Recombinant Penicillium pinophilum GH61A Polypeptide Having Cellulolytic Enhancing Activity

A 1 liter volume of supernatant of Aspergillus oryzae Exp02769 was precipitated with ammonium sulfate (80% saturation) and redissolved in 100 ml of 25 mM Bis-Tris pH 6.0 buffer, and then dialyzed against the same buffer and filtered through a 0.45 mm filter; the final volume was 200 ml. The solution was applied to a 40 ml Q SEPAHROSE® Fast Flow column (GE Healthcare, Buckinghamshire, UK) equilibrated in 25 mM Bis-Tris pH 6.0 buffer, and the recombinant GH61A protein was eluted with a linear NaCl gradient (0-0.25 M). Fractions from the column were analyzed by SDS-PAGE as described in Example 9. Fractions containing a band of approximately 64 kDa were pooled. Then the pooled solution was concentrated by ultrafiltration.

Example 11 Concentration and Quantitation of Penicillium pinophilum GH61A Polypeptide Having Cellulolytic Enhancing Activity

The purified sample from Example 10 was further concentrated using a 10 kDa MWCO

Amicon Ultracentrifuge concentrator (Millipore, Bedford, Mass., USA) to approximately a 10-fold smaller volume. The concentrated filtrate was buffer-exchanged into 20 mM Tris-(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane pH 8.0 and desalted using a BIO-GEL® P-6 desalting column (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Hercules, Calif., USA) pre-equilibrated with 20 ml of 20 mM Tris-(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane pH 8.0 (Sigma Chemical Co., Inc., St. Louis, Mo., USA), by addition of 3 ml of sample and elution with 3 ml of the same buffer. Concentrated, desalted Penicillium pinophilum GH61A protein was quantified using a Microplate BCA™ Protein Assay Kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, Mass., USA) with bovine serum albumin (Pierce, Rockford, Ill., USA) as a standard at concentrations between 0 and 0.8 mg per ml. Quantitation was performed in triplicate. Enzyme purity was confirmed using 8-16% gradient SDS-PAGE at 200 V for 1 hour, and staining with Coomassie BIO-SAFE™ stain (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Hercules, Calif., USA).

Example 12 Pretreatment of Corn Stover

Corn stover was pretreated at the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) using dilute sulfuric acid. The following conditions were used for the pretreatment: 1.4 wt % sulfuric acid at 165° C. and 107 psi for 8 minutes. The water-insoluble solids in the pretreated corn stover contained 57.5% cellulose, 4.6% hemicellulose and 28.4% lignin. Cellulose and hemicellulose were determined by a two-stage sulfuric acid hydrolysis with subsequent analysis of sugars by high performance liquid chromatography using NREL Standard Analytical Procedure #002. Lignin was determined gravimetrically after hydrolyzing the cellulose and hemicellulose fractions with sulfuric acid using NREL Standard Analytical Procedure #003.

The pretreated corn stover was milled and washed with water prior to use. Milled, washed pretreated corn stover (initial dry weight 32.35%) was prepared by milling in a Cosmos ICMG 40 wet multi-utility grinder (EssEmm Corporation, Tamil Nadu, India), and subsequent washing repeatedly with deionized water and decanting off the supernatant fraction. The dry weight of the milled, water-washed pretreated corn stover was found to be 7.114%.

Example 13 Effect of Penicillium pinophilum GH61A Polypeptide Having Cellulolytic Enhancing Activity on Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Pretreated Corn Stover

The hydrolysis of pretreated corn stover was conducted using 2.2 mL, 96-deep well plates (Axygen, Union City, Calif., USA) containing a total reaction mass of 1 g. The hydrolysis was performed with 5% total solids of washed, pretreated corn stover, equivalent to 28.75 mg of cellulose per ml, in 50 mM sodium acetate pH 5.0 buffer containing 1 mM manganese sulfate and a Trichoderma reesei cellulase composition (CELLUCLAST® supplemented with Aspergillus oryzae beta-glucosidase available from Novozymes A/S, Bagsvaerd, Denmark; the cellulase composition is designated herein in the Examples as “Trichoderma reesei cellulase composition”) at 4 mg per g of cellulose. Penicillium pinophilum GH61A polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity was added at concentrations between 0 and 93% (w/w) of total protein. Plates were sealed using an ALPS-300™ plate heat sealer (Abgene, Epsom, United Kingdom) and incubated at 50° C. for 0-168 hours with shaking at 150 rpm. All experiments were performed in duplicate or triplicate.

At various time points between 24 and 168 hours of incubation, 100 μl aliquots were removed and the extent of hydrolysis was assayed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using the protocol described below.

For HPLC analysis, samples were filtered with a 0.45 μm MULTISCREEN® 96-well filter plate (Millipore, Bedford, Mass., USA) and filtrates analyzed for sugar content as described below. The sugar concentrations of samples diluted in 0.005 M H₂SO₄ were measured using a 4.6×250 mm AMINEX® HPX-87H column (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Hercules, Calif., USA) by elution with 0.5% w/w benzoic acid-5 mM H₂SO₄ at a flow rate of 0.6 ml per minute at 65° C. for 11 minutes, and quantitation by integration of the glucose and cellobiose signals from refractive index detection (CHEMSTATION®, AGILENT® 1100 HPLC, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, Calif., USA) calibrated by pure sugar samples. The resultant equivalents were used to calculate the percentage of cellulose conversion for each reaction. The extent of each hydrolysis was determined as the fraction of total cellulose converted to cellobiose+glucose, and was not corrected for soluble sugars present in pretreated corn stover liquor.

All HPLC data processing was performed using Kaleidagraph software (Synergy software, Reading, Pa., USA). Measured sugar concentrations were adjusted for the appropriate dilution factor. Glucose and cellobiose were chromatographically separated and integrated and their respective concentrations determined independently. However, to calculate total conversion the glucose and cellobiose values were combined. Fractional hydrolysis is reported as the overall mass conversion to [glucose+ cellobiose]/[total cellulose]. Triplicate data points were averaged and standard deviation was calculated.

Fractional hydrolysis was plotted as a function of Penicillium pinophilum GH61A protein concentration and fitted with a modified saturation-binding model using Kaleidagraph. The data as shown in FIG. 5 demonstrated enhancement of hydrolysis by the Trichoderma reesei cellulase composition by addition of the Penicillium pinophilum GH61A polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity. Addition of the GH61A polypeptide from 0-93% (w/w) enhanced hydrolysis by the Trichoderma reesei cellulase composition by 23.4±1.6%, from 60.0±1.3% to 73.3±2.1% glucan conversion after 3 days of hydrolysis, and enhanced hydrolysis by 27.7±1.9%, from 71.3±1.3% to 99.0±2.3% glucan conversion after 7 days of hydrolysis.

Deposit of Biological Material

The following biological material has been deposited under the terms of the Budapest Treaty with the Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen and Zellkulturen GmbH (DSM), Mascheroder Weg 1 B, D-38124 Braunschweig, Germany, and given the following accession number:

Deposit Accession Number Date of Deposit E. coli (pGEM-T-Ppin7) DSM 22711 Jun. 24, 2009

The strain has been deposited under conditions that assure that access to the culture will be available during the pendency of this patent application to one determined by foreign patent laws to be entitled thereto. The deposit represents a substantially pure culture of the deposited strain. The deposit is available as required by patent laws in countries wherein counterparts of the subject application, or its progeny are filed. However, it should be understood that the availability of a deposit does not constitute a license to practice the subject invention in derogation of patent rights granted by governmental action.

The invention described and claimed herein is not to be limited in scope by the specific aspects herein disclosed, since these aspects are intended as illustrations of several aspects of the invention. Any equivalent aspects are intended to be within the scope of this invention. Indeed, various modifications of the invention in addition to those shown and described herein will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing description. Such modifications are also intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims. In the case of conflict, the present disclosure including definitions will control. 

1. An isolated polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity, selected from the group consisting of: (a) a polypeptide having at least 80% sequence identity to the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2; (b) a polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide that hybridizes under high stringency conditions with (i) the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, (ii) the cDNA sequence contained in the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, or (iii) the full-length complementary strand of (i) or (ii); (c) a polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide having at least 80% sequence identity to the mature polypeptide coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; (d) a variant comprising a substitution, deletion, and/or insertion of one or more (several) amino acids of the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2; and (e) a fragment of a polypeptide of (a), (b), (c), or (d) that has cellulolytic enhancing activity.
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 7. The polypeptide of claim 1, comprising or consisting of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; or a fragment thereof having cellulolytic enhancing activity.
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 21. The polypeptide of claim 1, which is encoded by the polynucleotide contained in plasmid pGEM-T-Ppin7 which is contained in E. coli DSM
 22711. 22. (canceled)
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 25. An isolated polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide of claim
 1. 26. (canceled)
 27. A recombinant host cell comprising the polynucleotide of claim 25 operably linked to one or more control sequences that direct the production of the polypeptide.
 28. A method of producing the polypeptide of claim 1, comprising: (a) cultivating a cell, which in its wild-type form produces the polypeptide, under conditions conducive for production of the polypeptide; and (b) recovering the polypeptide.
 29. A method of producing a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity, comprising: (a) cultivating the host cell of claim 27 under conditions conducive for production of the polypeptide; and (b) recovering the polypeptide.
 30. A transgenic plant, plant part or plant cell transformed with a polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide of claim
 1. 31. A method of producing a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity, comprising: (a) cultivating the transgenic plant or plant cell of claim 30 under conditions conducive for production of the polypeptide; and (b) recovering the polypeptide.
 32. A method of producing a mutant of a parent cell, comprising inactivating a polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide of claim 1, which results in the mutant producing less of the polypeptide than the parent cell.
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 36. A double-stranded inhibitory RNA (dsRNA) molecule comprising a subsequence of the polynucleotide of claim 25, wherein optionally the dsRNA is an siRNA or an miRNA molecule.
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 38. A method of inhibiting the expression of a polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity in a cell, comprising administering to the cell or expressing in the cell the double-stranded inhibitory RNA (dsRNA) molecule of claim
 36. 39. (canceled)
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 42. An isolated polynucleotide encoding a signal peptide comprising or consisting of amino acids 1 to 21 of SEQ ID NO:
 2. 43. (canceled)
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 45. A method of producing a protein, comprising: (a) cultivating a recombinant host cell comprising the polynucleotide of claim 42, wherein the gene is foreign to the polynucleotide encoding the signal peptide, under conditions conducive for production of the protein; and (b) recovering the protein.
 46. A method for degrading or converting a cellulosic material, comprising: treating the cellulosic material with an enzyme composition in the presence of the polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of claim
 1. 47. (canceled)
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 51. The method of claim 46, further comprising recovering the degraded cellulosic material.
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 54. A method for producing a fermentation product, comprising: (a) saccharifying a cellulosic material with an enzyme composition in the presence of the polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of claim 1; (b) fermenting the saccharified cellulosic material with one or more fermenting microorganisms to produce the fermentation product; and (c) recovering the fermentation product from the fermentation.
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 61. A method of fermenting a cellulosic material, comprising: fermenting the cellulosic material with one or more fermenting microorganisms, wherein the cellulosic material is saccharified with an enzyme composition in the presence of the polypeptide having cellulolytic enhancing activity of claim
 1. 62. The method of claim 61, wherein the fermenting of the cellulosic material produces a fermentation product.
 63. The method of claim 62, further comprising recovering the fermentation product from the fermentation.
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